


Into the Hereafter: Ascension (Phase One)

by kotonekotone



Series: Into the Hereafter [1]
Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-19 14:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 76,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7364239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kotonekotone/pseuds/kotonekotone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." - Frederick Douglass</p><p>Souta hasn't seen his sister Kagome in two years and he strives to remember her through his devotion to the Higurashi Shrine.  Kohaku dreams only of the silence of death and struggles to balance his life here on Earth in the aftermath of Naraku's control.  Shippou wants to become the most powerful kitsune in history in memory of his father but struggles to put his childish nature aside in order to do so.  Rin is torn between two worlds, protected by Lord Sesshoumaru but raised by Kaede.  Kai is being groomed to be the next leader of the wolves as they attempt to rebuild from the ashes of Naraku's slaughter.  Souten can't decide if she's going to be good or evil as the last Thunder Demon.</p><p>In a changing world filled with old friends and new dangers, old wounds and new hopes, the children left behind after Naraku's war struggle to find themselves and to protect those they love.</p><p>"Into the Hereafter" is a series of tales following the younger generations of the Sengoku Jidai and the modern era, including heavy worldbuilding and original characters.  Phase One (Ascension) occurs two years after the end of the original series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Souta and the Well

**Author's Note:**

> Several chapters of this work were originally published last year, but after a long break, I've decided to alter my original plans and mix several stories together rather than publish them separately. Until I catch up to where I was, some chapters may be from the past posting, while others may be new. The goal is to create a more cohesive work that clearly ties the two eras together with a different tone, rather than trying to connect them after the separate tales are published.
> 
> Additional note: As this story expands, you will notice increasing worldbuilding. I try to stay faithful to the tone of Takahashi's original work, while including Japanese historical, mythological, and cultural information that can help enrich the world around the characters. I plan to use Japanese words only where the English translation is not quite faithful enough, particularly as related to Japanese mythology.

 

As the grandson of a priest and the next male in line to inherit the family shrine, Souta Higurashi loved Hatsumode. Over the years, he had increasingly realized how much he treasured his family and the land they lived on—land with a history stretching back hundreds of years, land imbued with such magic that it had been able to call Souta’s own sister back to the Feudal Era. He had thought Kagome’s role as the protector of the Shikon no Tama was neat enough when he was a young boy; as he grew, he had realized it was actually pretty freaking _awesome_. 

He had decided there were four good reasons to love Hatsumode. The first reason was the cleaning. Even before Christmas, Souta’s mother and grandfather had begun vigorously scrubbing every corner of the shrine and its grounds. Sure, the cleaning itself was tedious if not frustrating—Grandpa’s idea of “clean” differed radically from that of the average 14-year-old boy—but the way the shrine looked on December 31st, before the crowds arrived, was like looking back into time. Souta would pause in the gateway as he walked home from school each day, feeling a connection with his sister that stretched far across time and space.

The second reason was the kariginu. As the priest-in-training, Souta was allowed to don the same white garments as his grandfather while the shrine received Hatsumode visitors. Now that he was growing rapidly, he was able to fit into his father’s old outfit and both his grandfather and mother had noted how proud Mr. Higurashi would have been to see his son taking part in the family business. Even Hitomi had once commented how handsome he had looked the year before and since Souta had grown an extra four inches in the last year, he was planning to show off for her again this year. He’d even prepared a special omamori just for her.

The omamori were the third reason. He loved helping his grandfather and mother prepare them, he loved helping visitors burn the ones from the previous year, and he loved giving them new ones. Handing someone a small token of luck, wealth, health, or love was strangely comforting. 

The crowds were fourth. He loved the festive crowds, with women and men in full kimono. Almost all his friends from school would come visit, as well as his teachers. He could see everyone he loved in a single day and he could give each of them a physical manifestation of his well-wishes for them in the form of the New Year’s omamori. It was a win-win holiday in every possible way. 

Well, except one.

________________________________________  

 

“My, aren’t you looking _gangly_ ,” Minako commented as she shrugged off her fur coat and shoved it into his arms. Her appearance hadn’t changed much since the last time Souta saw her—the same perfectly coiffed hair, porcelain makeup, bright lipstick, extravagant jewelry. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, you’ll grow into it, I’m sure. _Papa_ , I’m home~~,” she called down the hallway as she stepped out of her heels and up onto the wooden floor.

Behind her, her husband and child worked to divest themselves of their own footwear. Souta’s uncle, Takahiro, was a salaryman with a sharp jawline and a quiet demeanor, but he was polite where it mattered. He gave his young nephew a small bow and a pat on the head before following his wife into the main room. Souta paused, staring at his cousin. She was taking an awfully long time, currently posed with one foot half-out of her loafers, the right toe of one shoe pressing against the back of the left. Like most junior high students, whatever was on her phone was far more important than any family get-together.

Souta hung his aunt’s coat on the rack to the side of the shoe closet and then turned back to his cousin. “Come on, Kiko, hurry up. You know Grandpa wants to talk about the kagura,” he grunted, reaching out his socked foot to nudge her in the shin.

The young girl clicked her tongue and tucked her phone into her pocket. “I still don’t know why Kagome isn’t doing the miko kagura. She’s the eldest Higurashi girl.”

“She’s really busy,” Souta replied, just a _little_ too quickly. 

Kiko narrowed her eyes at him as she stepped out of her shoes. “Yeah, you guys have been saying that for an entire year. I _still_ think she married into the yakuza.”

Souta scowled and turned to walk towards the main room. The current remnants of the Higurashi clan were gathered around the large kotatsu. Grandpa once had six siblings, but he was the only one after the war. From his humble brood—one elder son, one younger daughter—there were three grandchildren. He looked up at the two entering the room, affection spreading across his face, and motioned for them to sit. Mrs. Higurashi was dealing out food in heaping quantities. Minako was already regaling her father about how _old_ the house was, how he should consider moving into one of the new apartment buildings, how much happier he’d be with a doorman. Souta tried to keep his faces to himself. 

“So, did Kagome marry a yakuza guy, or what?” Kiko whispered conspiratorially, leaning in towards him. “You can tell me, you know. I won’t tell anyone.” 

“Like you didn’t tell anyone last Christmas when you saw me and Hitomi together?” Souta hissed back.

“Oh _please_ , I only asked if your lips were chapped.”

“In front of my mom! Your exact words were, ‘Wow, Souta, were your lips so chapped _before_ or _after_ Hitomi got a hold of you at the shrine gate?’”

Kiko shrugged innocently.

Souta leaned in further, keeping his voice low. “Do you _know_ the kind of talk my mom had with me once you guys left? It was so—”

“Souta, dear, what are you two whispering about over there?” Mrs. Higurashi asked.

“Nothing!” Souta quickly answered at the _exact_ same time that Kiko replied, “Kagome.”

Minako perked up immediately from listening to the strange tale from her father of how a nekomata had once dug a hole in the back of the shrine yard and buried a demon's bone there. Nekomata, indeed. She had found a _much_ better conversation topic.

“Oh yes, Kagome! How _is_ she, anyway? Isn’t she coming home for the New Year?”

 Grandpa, Mrs. Higurashi, and Souta all stiffened at once.

“N-no,” Mrs. Higurashi said. “She’s a little busy this year, so she’ll be staying with her husband’s family.” 

“ _Hmmm_. What a shame that we never got to meet him. _And_ that there are no pictures of them together,” Minako cooed. 

Grandpa looked between Souta and Mrs. Higurashi, who were trying to remember what version of the story they had told to explain this. “Well, that’s because she’s joined the Public Security Intelligence Agency and gone deep undercover,” he replied. Souta’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

Minako stared at her father as if he had just grown another head. “ _Excuse_ me?”

 “It’s a very dangerous job, but our Kagome was tasked to protect the Japanese people from outside threats. She had to change her name and appearance to keep us all safe,” Grandpa nodded solemnly.

 Minako blinked, then looked at her husband. Takahiro was staring at his rice bowl as if it would yield the latest stock numbers. Souta cleared his throat and then burst out laughing.

“Haha, Grandpa, that’s a good one! Never heard that one before! Wow, you should really become a writer!”

Huffing loudly, Minako crossed her arms. “Honestly, if you all would just tell the _truth_ instead of being so dishonest about it. It’s not like we don’t already _know_.”

“Know…what?” Mrs. Higurashi just had to ask, for the sake of hospitality and Souta’s weakening nerves, apparently.

“That Kagome ran off and had a shotgun wedding because she was pregnant, of course!” Minako held a hand over her heart. “It’s an embarrassment for us as a family, certainly, but you can be sure I’m teaching our Kiko to be a _much_ better girl.”

 Kiko rolled her eyes and stood up. “I’m going to go say hi to Uncle Seiichi.”

 Souta scrambled up as well. “I’ll go with you!”

 “Darling, tell him I said hi and about your daddy’s raise at work,” Minako called out after them, waving an open hand as she reached for another piece of fish. “Now, Kasumi, from mother to mother, I know how embarrassed you must be—”

________________________________________ 

 

Kiko bowed her head at the family gravesite, hands clasped in prayer. Souta followed suit, eyes squeezing shut as he remembered the smiling face in the family portraits done just before his father died. All the pictures were crisp and bright, but Kagome could remember their father’s face in motion, whereas Souta could not. That was the one downfall of being raised with only photo albums.

“Do you think Grandpa’s getting Alzheimer’s?” Kiko asked suddenly. Souta popped his eyes back open and looked at her. She was the tiniest bit taller than him, and a good amount more trend-conscious in her fashion, but the differences in their overall appearances were minor enough that anyone could tell that they were related.

“Uhh, no, why?”

“Because of that whole thing back there with your sister. I mean, Grandpa tells big stories, but whew—” Kiko whistled lowly and walked slowly from the shrine towards the sacred tree. “That was insane! That was like he actually believed that Kagome’s gone off to be a spy!" 

Souta stared at her for a long moment. Kiko blinked in confusion, then pointed a finger accusingly.

“That’s not funny, Souta! If you don’t want to tell us what Kagome did, then—” 

“What if I told you the truth?”

Kiko paused, finger lowering in surprise.

“I can tell you what really happened. But you can’t tell your mom or dad. It’s really…well, they _definitely_ won’t believe it.”

“…okay then, tell me.”

Souta took a deep breath. “Kagome…Kagome went through a magical portal and now lives in the Feudal Era with a half-youkai.”

Kiko threw her hands into the air.

“It’s completely true, Kiko! Like, I know it sounds crazy, but it really happened! You have to believe me! She helped stop this evil youkai who was trying to collect a magical stone!” Souta persisted.

“Oh please, if you expect me to believe that—” 

Souta grabbed Kiko’s wrist suddenly, dragging her towards the wellhouse. “Listen, it was bad enough last year when we had to just pretend like everything was okay and she’d be coming back soon, but now—well, you’re family, and you need to know! At least so you can make your mom stop saying bad things about Kagome!”

The wellhouse doors hadn’t been opened in a long time, but Souta pried them open easily enough, pulling his cousin in after him. It was pitch-black inside except for one stream of moonlight cascading in from the open doors across the floor to the old well. Kiko wrenched her arm out of Souta’s grasp and took a step away from him, rubbing her wrist irritably.

“It closed again after she left,” Souta continued, walking towards the well and leaning over to look in. “Probably because she didn’t have the Shikon no Tama anymore.” 

“Sheekon-no-what? You and Grandpa are _both_ crazy,” Kiko spat, kicking a loose stone. “Seriously, I don’t know why my family even visits yours anymore. Your sister ran off to get married because she was pregnant, Grandpa is getting dementia, and you’re trying to tell me that my cousin is in a _freaking well_?” She threw her hands up in the air for the second time in ten minutes. “Thank god my last name isn’t Higurashi so I don’t have to be associated with you freaks!” 

Souta stared at her, frown deepening until he looked openly enraged. “Just because you’re too stupid to understand—”

Kiko’s voice went teenage-shrill. “STUPID?! YOU’RE CALLING ME STUPID?!”

“If the shoe fits!”

“I’ll show you a shoe when I’m breaking it off in your—”

_“Now, now, **children**. Let’s not fight.”_

Souta and Kiko froze, turning towards the third voice.

_“Let’s all…be… **friends**.”_

The wellhouse doors slammed shut and the entire room fell into darkness.

Kiko screamed and Souta scrambled to find her in the dark. His hand hit something solid, but the moment he gripped it, he realized it was not human flesh. It was ice cold and covered in scales. It shifted under his touch just as he recoiled in horror. 

Whatever it was, in the pitch darkness, Souta realized that it was now _looking at him_. 

_“The **blood** is the same, but no real **power**. A shame.”_

A cold grip enveloped him before he could run. Souta gasped once, making a weak mewling sound as something encircled his body and began squeezing. He was picked up, just high enough to feel the tips of his toes scrape the ground.

Somewhere off to his right, Kiko called out his name, her own voice quaking with fear. The thing holding him twisted, and Souta realized it must have now been looking at her.

_“Even **less** power, **less** blood. A good appetizer, I suppose.”_

Souta suddenly was dropped, collapsing onto himself and gasping for air. He could hear something sliding through the pressed dirt on the ground, up the small staircase that surrounded the well. “KIKO!” he screamed, “ **KIKO, RUN!** ”

Two things happened at once. Kiko cried out, a half-scream, half-wail. The room suddenly seemed the tiniest bit illuminated.

 Souta could _see_.

 It was big—over 15 feet from head to tail. There was no discernible head or neck, only the snake-like body and then a horrible human face where the snake-face should have been. Long, uneven fangs encased behind rotting lips, eyes with pupils but no irises, and sunken cheekbones—Souta shouted in fear, desperately feeling around him for something to grab on to.  

Across the room, Kiko was staring at it too. And it was staring back at her. But unlike Souta, who knew youkai existed, who had seen them in person and knew they could be defeated, Kiko only knew that she was seeing something that she could not explain, something horrible beyond words, something that was _coming to eat her_. She took a step to run, but the monster was too fast. Within the blink of an eye it had surrounded her, wrapping her up in the thick coils of its serpentine body. Souta watched helplessly, desperately trying to think of what to do.

The room was growing brighter and brighter. Light was seeping through the smallest cracks in the roof and siding. The snake-youkai hissed and tightened around Kiko’s small body, just as Souta fished the omamori he had made for Hitomi out of his pocket. Across the front, he had hand-stitched the kanji for “Happiness” and inside he had tucked—

Souta clenched the omamori in his hand and looked up at the snake and his cousin. “KIKO, HOLD ON!” he yelled, charging up the small staircase and towards the youkai. It was a suicidal move, for sure, but Grandpa had blessed the inner talisman himself, even if it was for personal happiness, and that meant it was—

 _“ **SACRED!!!** ”_ the snake screamed as the omamori touched its skin and instantly began burning through scales and tissues. Kiko squeaked as the youkai tightened its grip around her ribs, and Souta pushed forward, his hand sinking into the corroding snake-flesh. He realized he was yelling at the top of his lungs, even as the youkai screeched and flailed against the wall. 

The series of events that happened next would be what Souta remembered most vividly from this entire night, despite it all occurring over only a few seconds.

The snake-youkai toppled over the small railing surrounding the well, flailing and screaming as the omamori burned through its side. It fell straight into the well, Kiko still wrapped up in its upper body, Souta clinging towards its tail. The well was a deep drop, and the snake flailed all the way down with violent pulses that shook Souta so hard he was thrown back up into the air. He was falling now just a second behind the monster and Kiko.

The omamori fell out of his hand, straight down into the well with the youkai and his cousin. Kiko’s hand, in reaching in vain for Souta, caught it instead.

The snake made a triumphant noise when the burning stopped and turned its face towards Souta.

 Souta thought of how nice Hitomi had looked the day before at school and wondered if he would ever see her again.

They were all still falling down into the well. Neither of the cousins had realized time was capable of moving so slowly.

The bottom of the well was growing closer and closer. The snake and Kiko would hit it first, then Souta. He had to have a plan of action. A plan of attack. She had the omamori, so maybe—

 Suddenly, there was no bottom to the well. It was glowing, like it had when Kagome had been able to use it freely. The upper part of the monster, still twisted around Kiko, fell straight through it.

Souta reached out, thinking maybe he still had time, just as the portal slammed shut. The youkai was chopped clean in half where it closed. Its blood and sinew splashed across Souta’s face less than a millisecond before he himself crashed into the dirt at the bottom of the well. He felt his arm snap underneath him and screamed. Beside him, the lower half of the snake writhed and wriggled, squirting blood all over the sides of the well. 

The pain was overwhelming, the shock of the event even worse. Souta’s head rolled against the ground, whimpering his cousin’s name. The room was utterly dark again as he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness at the bottom of the well.

“Kiko…Mom, Grandpa, _help_ …help me…Kagome…Kagome, please… _Dad_ … _help_ …”

 

 

 


	2. In The Past

It was a snowy winter day, so most of the village had stayed inside their homes. Occasionally a child could be heard running to and from a friend’s house, but other than that, Kaede’s village was absolutely quiet.

Kagome had spent the last hour soundlessly sewing in front of the fire pit, idly finishing a new pair of pants for Shippou while Rin practiced calligraphy beside her. Kitsune had no real reason to age too quickly, so Shippou was still very small compared to the younger villagers, but the young fox was still growing and he’d need a new set of clothes before the end of the spring. He was in the corner of the room, playing a half-game with Inuyasha that involved a lot of ear-tweaking and cursing. 

“Dammit, Shippou, I swear, if you touch me one more time—” 

Shippou reached over, hovering a finger less than a centimeter from Inuyasha’s leg. “I’m not touching you~~,” he sang, and Inuyasha aimed a sharp punch at his head. The kitsune disappeared in a puff of laughing smoke, Inuyasha cursed, and Rin giggled. The last two years in Kaede’s village had been mostly like this—idyllic and calm. 

“ **WOLF!!!** ” Emiko screeched as she burst through the front door, following closely by her twin sister Etsuko. “ **THERE’S WOLVES IN THE VILLAGE!!!** ”

Had it been any other child, the tone of her voice would have been fear or at least disdain. But Emiko and Etsuko, daughters of a priest father and a demon-slayer mother, delighted in the supernatural visits that Inuyasha and Kagome occasionally received. They pounced on Inuyasha just as he spotted Shippou behind a nearby screen, diverting the hanyou's attention. 

“Hnnh—” Inuyasha grunted, shifting one squirming twin into each arm. “I knew I smelled that stupid wolf. Where are your folks?”

Etsuko, the quieter twin, looked at her sister to answer, who promptly screamed, “THEY SAID THEY’RE HAVING PARENT CON-FUR-ING TIME!!! WHEE!!!” 

Kagome burst out laughing at the secret code Miroku and Sango had employed and set her sewing aside. “Well then, you two can come say hi to Kouga with me and Inuyasha. Rin, go tell Lady Kaede that we’ll meet them outside the village, so none of the villagers need to be informed.”

Rin nodded and scampered outside, leaving her calligraphy lying out to dry. The twins cheered at their inclusion in the exciting events. Inuyasha looked sour as Shippou poked his ears yet again.

__________________________________

 

Kouga and his constant companions, Ginta and Hakkaku, were waiting at the edge of the village where the forest met the fields. Kagome waved brightly the moment they came into view.

Cupping her hands around her mouth, she yelled down the path. “Kouga! It’s been too long!" 

Instead of yelling in reply, Kouga ran to her and snatched her hands up in his, holding them solemnly. “Kagome, you’ve grown even more beautiful,” he proclaimed, dodging Inuyasha’s incoming punch with ease. “No worries, dogbreath, I’m a married wolf now.”

Inuyasha cracked his neck irritably, the twins each hanging onto one of his pantlegs as he maneuvered his wife away from Kouga. “Like I’d trust a wolf to keep his word,” he snorted.

“Hey, that’s offensive!” Ginta panted he and Hakkaku jogged up to the group. 

“Yeah, don’t discriminate against wolves because of a few bad seeds! We’re really quite honest and reliable,” Hakkaku nodded. 

Inuyasha looked over at Kagome. “I wish you had never taught these two losers about all that ‘offensive’ stuff.” 

Kagome laughed and shrugged at her husband before turning her attention back to Kouga. “How is Ayame?”

“Keeps me on a short leash,” Kouga joked. “She probably wouldn’t have let me come visit if it wasn’t so personal.” 

“Personal?” Inuyasha repeated, raising an eyebrow and keeping Emiko from reaching up and touching Ginta’s fur loincloth. “No telling where _that’s_ been, kiddo,” he murmured, sniggering when Ginta launched off in a rant again. 

“Yeah, it’s about—” Kouga glanced behind him, then did a double-take. “Dammit, where did that cub get off to?” He curled two fingers in his lips and let out a loud whistle. There was a flurry in the nearby treeline a second later, and a near tornado of speed that accompanied the young wolf youkai that came running.

“Sorry, Kouga,” Kai said, stopping a few feet in front of the group. An afterwave of wind hit them, blowing their furs and clothes lightly. “I got distracted by the forest. There are some pretty fat rabbits in there. Think we can grab a couple for the trip home?”

Kagome looked between the four wolves, her husband, Shippou, and the twins before she nodded. “I see what you mean. Let’s go back to the house.”

 __________________________________

 

Kai grimaced, scrunching up his eyes so he wouldn’t have to see Kagome’s miko-hands hovering above his legs.

“Don’t worry,” she murmured, illuminated by her purple energy. “I won’t hurt you. I’m just checking for anything left over from the shard Byakuya put in your leg.” Her brow furrowed and she shook her head, hands losing their glow.

“Nope, nothing. There’s nothing I can find, Kouga. I can have Lady Kaede take a look, if you want.”

Kouga folded his arms and shook his head, leaning against the doorframe. “I trust your sight. Can you explain it? I mean, he was just as slow as me when we both got our shards out. Now he’s nearly faster than I was with mine _in_. It doesn’t make sense.”

 Kagome tapped her chin. “No, it doesn’t. But if I had to guess, I’d say it has to do with the fact that he’s a growing boy.” She smiled at Kai, who was rubbing his shins idly and looking slightly bashful. “You know, Sango’s brother had a Shikon shard as well, and he’s mentioned before that he’s occasionally naturally sensed youkai energy since it was taken out. Maybe something about the shard’s power changed how you develop. Does it hurt at all?”

Kai shook his head quietly.

Kouga jerked his head towards the door outside. “Go have some fun in the snow, cub. I’ll meet up with you in a little while.”

The young wolf scrambled off the floor and bowed deeply at Kagome before running outside. She chuckled, motioning for Kouga to sit beside her. In the next room, Inuyasha was laughing as the twins apparently ambushed Ginta and Hakkaku.

“It’s good of you to take care of him.”

Kouga snorted as he sat down. “No, that’s pack nature. We take care of our own. Besides, he and his brother are the only two pups we got left after Naraku wiped so many of us out. Plenty of newborns, but no one their age. Ayame insisted we take them in. He’s from a branch of her tribe anyway.” He shrugged nonchalantly.

Smiling, Kagome placed a hand on his knee. “I’m sure he appreciates it.”

“He’s…a good cub. Listens well, doesn’t backtalk too much. Quiet as shit sometimes, but considering everything he’s been through, that makes sense.” Kouga paused, flicking a speck of dirt off his fur shin-guards. “I’m teaching him how to lead the pack. There’s too big of a gap between the generations. It’ll be years before Ayame and I have a cub old enough to learn these kind of things. So we’re raising him, as much as we can.”

“Sometimes I pity the older children the most,” Kagome murmured, looking over at the sounds of young joy in the next room. “Imagine trying to grow up surrounded by everything we were fighting against. And if something about the Shikon’s power is actually changing the ones that are still growing…”

Kouga was quiet for a long while. “Kagome…do you think he’ll be alright?”

Kagome smiled and patted his knee. “Whatever the shards did to him and Kohaku, they’ll be fine. They’re all so resilient. They’ll leave us all in the dust.” She laughed when Kouga sneered his nose at her turn of phrase. “Oh sorry, I forgot that you’re still tender about being an old, slowpoke wolf.”

“Hey now,” Kouga grumbled. “You’re getting as hateful as your husband.”

__________________________________

 

Shippou found the wolf boy crouching in the snow. “Whatcha doing?” he asked, only for Kai to jump around in surprise.

“Nothing,” the white-haired boy answered, kicking over his small snowman and frowning. “I didn’t hear you coming.”

“Oh,” Shippou grinned, disappearing in a puff of smoke that faded away to reveal a giant pink balloon. “That’s because I was floating.”

Kai blinked. “Oh right, you’re a kitsune.”

“A high-rank kitsune!” Shippou asserted, morphing back into his original form and whipping a paper out of his jacket. “Look! This is my ranking from the last exam! 6th rank! Not bad, huh?”

Kai didn’t look too impressed. “I don’t…know what exam you’re talking about…” he answered.

Shippou was scandalized. “You don’t know the kitsune exams? The exams we use to rank ourselves and our powers?!”

“Wolf youkai usually just fight if we want to change spots in the pack.”

“Well, that’s because you’re beasts. Kitsune are much more refined beings.” Shippou patted his chest proudly.

“Eh,” the wolf shrugged. “Probably true.” He tapped his heel against the snow, then turned around. “Well…I’m going to go explore the forest now. See you later.” Then he padded off in the snow, conversation apparently over. Shippou sputtered, then chased after him.

“HEY, I WAS TRYING TO BE FRIENDLY! I want to explore too!  Jeez, _wolves_!”

 __________________________________ 

 

“That’s the Bone-Eater’s Well,” Shippou explained half an hour later as he and Kai entered the clearing deep within the forest. “It’s closed now, but Kagome used to use it to go back and forth from the future.”

Kai regarded it for a moment, then nodded and kept walking. “Okay.”

“ _Pahhh_ ,” Shippou muttered under his breath, “you could be a little more interested, you know. It’s kinda cool.”

The wolf youkai glanced back at the well over his shoulder. “But it’s closed, so it’s not really anything but a hole in the ground. Besides—” he waved a hand in front of his nose. “It smells like rot.”

“Probably all the dead demon corpses.” Shippou transformed himself into a dancing skeleton and did a small jig in the snow.

Kai snorted lightly. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I mea—”

He stopped mid-sentence as the wind shifted suddenly. Both youkai looked up at the sky, Shippou shifting back into his real appearance, and watched the trees begin to sway powerfully.

There was a sudden cracking sound behind them, following by a monstrous scream. Both boys spun, Kai moving to shield Shippou and Shippou moving to change into something much more intimidating, but there was nothing there. Nothing but the well.

The scream continued. It was a horrible voice in terrible agony, and Shippou clasped his hands over his ears. “It’s coming from the well!” he shouted. Kai nodded and began walking slowly forward.

“Don’t go over there! Let’s go get Inuyasha and Kouga!” Shippou yelped.

“I’m only going to take a look. Stay here. I’m fast enough; I won’t get caught. Besides…it’s dying. Can’t you hear it?”

“Yeah, which is exactly why I don’t—” Shippou jumped in surprise as Kai suddenly took off towards the well. “—hey! I was still talking! Don’t—oh man, why are you _standing_ on the well-edge, are you _crazy_?!”

Kai peered down into the darkness. The screaming was fading gradually. “It’s a snake,” he called over to Shippou, squatting down to rest his elbows on his knees. “Well, _half_ a snake, at least. And a lot of blood.”

“Uh- _uh_!” Shippou yapped, turning his back on the entire scene. “I’m going to go get Kagome.”

The snake’s moans were barely audible, then faded into silence.

“It’s dead,” Kai said unceremoniously after a moment and hopped off the edge of the wall back into the snow. “Okay, let’s go tell Inuyasha and Kagome.” He padded over to the kitsune, flexing his feet. “I can carry you. It’d be fastest.”

“ _Please_ , I am the 6th ranked kitsune,” Shippou boasted. “I think I can—hey, why’d you stop?”

Kai was looking back at the well, squinting. “Do you hear that?”

“No, and let’s _not_ find out what you’re hearing.”

“No, _seriously_ , I hear something.” 

This time, when Kai darted back to the well with his unnatural speed, he didn’t stop at the edge. He jumped straight in.

Shippou shrieked. “ ** _Wolves_**!” he whined, stomping in place before he ran to the well too. He scrambled up onto the wooden ledge, peering down into the darkness. He could see the snake and its bloodied half-corpse. And there was Kai, hunched over and pushing a heavy coil away from something bright. “What is it?” the fox yelled down. 

Kai looked up at him, standing up with the “it” curled in his arms. “It’s a human,” he called up. “Stand back, I’m coming up.”

Shippou jumped down onto the snowy grass just as a burst of wind erupted from the well, Kai and his bundle atop it. The wolf landed a few feet in front of him and sunk into the snow. Shippo leapt towards him, latching his hands onto Kai’s back and pulling himself up to peek over the older boy’s shoulder. “Hey,” he whispered, “it’s a girl. She kinda looks like Kagome, don’t you think?”

Kai nodded. “Her breathing is a little off. I think some of her ribs are broken.” He shifted her to the crook of his right arm, using his left hand to brush her hair out of her face. She mewled against the touch, and both youkai jumped. 

“She’s waking up!” Shippou whispered, hiding half his face behind Kai’s shoulder. “Let’s go get Kagome and Kaede! Come on, Kai!”

The wolf child was quiet, staring at the slowly-reviving girl. “Her clothes are weird,” he murmured after a moment, rising to his feet. Shippou clung to his shoulder, and the girl coughed weakly, eyelids fluttering. She looked a lot less like Kagome once her eyes were open, Kai decided, since the color of her eyes were completely different from the the older girl's. She was having trouble focusing her vision, it seemed, and Kai was just about to suggest she go back to sleep when Inuyasha’s voice boomed over the clearing.

“ **BE CAREFUL, YOU TWO!** ” The hanyou landed beside them, Tessaiga at the ready. Kagome had her arms around his neck. Kouga was not far behind, relegated to riding atop Kirara with Sango and Miroku.

“A dead snake youkai?” Sango murmured as Kirara hovered over the well. “It’s full-grown, too. Looks like someone cut it in half.”

The group looked at Shippou and Kai, who shook their heads fiercely.

“It was like that when we found it,” Shippou insisted, and then amended, “Well, when it appeared, I guess.”

“ _Appeared_?” Inuyasha repeated as Kagome hopped off his back and moved towards Kai.

“Wait a minute,” she gasped, rushing over to the boy and the barely conscious girl in his arms. “That’s— _ **Kiko**_?!”

“…gome…” the girl whimpered weakly. “Kagome…snake…” 

Kagome gently pulled the girl from Kai’s arms into hers. “Inuyasha, we need to get her back to the village. Can you carry her?” 

Inuyasha nodded, squatting beside his wife. “You know her?”

Kagome nodded, looking up at group as she used her free hand to pull Souta’s omamori from the girl’s fingers. “She’s _family_. My cousin, Tsukiko.”

 

 

 


	3. The Emissary in the Dark

“In memory of the glorious Thunder Brothers,” the emissary repeated for what was surely the third time. Kouryuu was keeping track. And at the same time, he was keeping a careful eye on his mistress as she listened to the stranger’s offer.

Souten had not grown much over the past few years, but she was doing her best to give the impression of it. Back carefully straightened, hands placed on her crossed legs, chin high, it was almost possible to see the warrior woman she might one day grow to be. She had been gracious when the stranger had come bearing the traditional gifts—demon sake, a hand-carved bone spear, an elegant kimono. She had received him in the main hall, walking in careful, measured steps.

Kouryuu felt a burst of what was surely paternal pride. The small dragon was, after all, the closest thing Souten had to a father, although the girl would certainly rage if he were to ever say that aloud. Her memories of her father were sacred to her, second only to those of her mother. Her brothers were also there, but it had been so long since she had mentioned revenge on Shippou or Inuyasha that it seemed she would not follow in her siblings’ bloody footprints.

Not that she could still do much. Her thunder was certainly stronger, but the rest of her abilities were still rather…underwhelming. That was what concerned Kouryuu most about this entire proposal.

The emissary claimed to be from the Southern Tengu Tribe, and while Kouryuu had no real reason to doubt that, his request was rather confusing.  
  
“My lowly brethren have always held the esteemed Thunder Demon Tribe in the highest regard. To hear of the deaths of your most honorable brothers— ” The tengu stopped to dab at his eyes and nose. “Truly a heartbreaking loss of our greatest youkai lords.”

Souten looked parts pleased and uncomfortable. She had begun to shift on her knees, clearly feeling the numbness that had come on during the stranger’s long diatribes. Kouryuu silently willed his mistress to stay still.

“Your sympathies are greatly appreciated,” she answered, glancing at the stack of his gifts. “As are your tributes to my tribe, err…what did you say your name was?” 

“Kyuzetsu,” the tengu said a little too quickly. He immediately recovered with a mournful smile. “But under your capable hands the Thunder Demon Tribe will grow to be great again.” 

Souten smiled, ego stroked.

“And yet…” the emissary murmured, glancing away.  
  
“Yet what?” Souten asked.

The tengu coughed loudly. “It is only that…well, milady…my people, and indeed the entire youkai world, fear what will come now that the Shikon no Tama is destroyed and the humans have power over us.”

Souten snorted, crossing her arms. “Humans have no power over me!”

Kouryuu side-eyed her, remembering how a human girl’s hug had once calmed her rage.

The stranger nodded his head eagerly. “But of course, milady! Your power is beyond their imagination. But for the rest of us, it is a turbulent time. We fear the increasing numbers of miko, priests, even the simple spiritually-aware peasant. It is truly an alarming time to be a youkai." 

Kouryuu cleared his throat. “We have no concerns about that up here in the Raimei Valley. There are no human settlements for miles, and our castle is safeguarded against enemies.”

“Exactly,” the tengu nodded. “Which is why I am here. My lord would use your castle with its ample safety measures to house his soldiers.”

“For war?” Souten asked.

The stranger smiled. “War, of course. As a noble Thunder Demon, you recognize the importance of maintaining our way of life. We cannot allow ourselves to fade into extinction. Youkai have always fought. We will continue to fight, and my lord wishes to have your support as the last of the Thunder Tribe. Your name will bring many fearful spirits to our cause.”

Souten glanced at Kouryuu, and instantly the dragon understood what she was thinking.

“My lady would take the time to consider your offer,” he said, bowing deeply. “There are many things to consider, you understand.”

There was a moment of silence as the tengu drew his gaze away from the young girl, towards her servant, then back to her. “I understand completely. Without your brothers’ influence, you have had little training in war. You are still so young to carry such the burden of your family’s lost traditions on your shoulders. It is a shame there are no other family members to show you the way.”

Souten prickled visibly at this. Kouryuu glanced at her, sensing that she was about to do something rash, and opened his mouth to stop her.

“Indeed, my lady will—”

“I’ll do it.”

Kouryuu winced. Kyuzetsu smiled.

“For the memory of my brothers,” Souten said, standing suddenly. The tengu did the opposite, folding into a deep bow. “Whatever you need, I will provide.”

______________________

 

Later that night, after the emissary had left, Kouryuu watched Souten color quietly in her bedroom.

“Lady Souten,” he began.

“ ** _Don’t_** lecture me,” she growled, looking over at him with a pushed-out lip. “You’re always telling me to ‘act more like a Thunder Lord,’ so I am.”

“Well, this certainly wasn’t what I had in mind…” Kouryuu muttered.

“He’s right, though!” Souten scribbled hard on her paper, falling outside the lines and hissing at herself in anger. “The humans are going to destroy our way of life! My brothers would not have let that happen!”

The small dragon considered his lady for a moment. “Lady Kagome was not so bad, if I recall…” 

Souten paused, staring at her paper. “So? There are always good ones.”

 “And what about _you_ ,” Kouryuu asked. “Do _you_ want to be a good one?”

“A good what? A good thunder demon? Of course! That’s why I’ll help with this. A good youkai protects her own and honors her family’s memory.” 

“Lady Souten—” 

“I’m ready for bed!” the young girl announced suddenly and altogether too petulantly. She shoved herself up from the table, leaving a mess of papers and crayon sharpenings in her wake. “You can go now.” 

“But milady—” Kouryuu protested. 

“You. Can. Go. Now.” Souten snapped, stomping her feet in time with her words. “Tomorrow you’ll prep the castle for guests. Clean it top to bottom. Any dust you leave behind makes the Thunder Demon Tribe look bad. Just remember that.” 

Kouryuu sighed as he watched his master plod off. Just when he thought perhaps she was growing up, she would always show how much she had to learn. Kouryuu was glad he didn’t have any children. Cleaning up Souten’s messes was enough as it was. He left the room in silence, extinguishing the candles and leaving his petulant lady in darkness.

Once outside, he groaned at the realization of just how much cleaning he would have to do.

__________________________

 

Kyuzetsu spread his dark wings out and took flight just outside the castle doors. The Raimei Valley was beautiful from above, but he was unconcerned with such things. Up ahead, a slit in the air became visible, glowing in a prism of colors.

He flew straight in, disappearing from sight like a lizard into its burrow. 

On the other side of the portal, there was only a long road suspended in darkness on both sides, seemingly held up by magic. When Kyuzetsu had first come to this place, he had struggled to understand which way was up and which was down. If you looked up for too long, you realized you were looking down. And when you looked down, the dark sky stared back at you. He had spent his first few days in utter terror, until the god had come to him in the darkness and made him understand. 

“ _There is no light but that we allow_ ,” a voice thundered from the end of the long road. A large, black structure sat at the end of the path, and inside it a tall, shrouded figure.

“And you allow it no longer,” Kyuzetsu answered, falling onto one knee in a deep bow. “Another youkai lord has agreed to our terms, my God.”

The figure did not reply, but instead looked up. What Kyuzetsu saw beyond its hood was impossible to know, but he understood the darkness well enough.

“Yes, my God. I will prepare.”


	4. Inquiring Minds

Souta’s day was off to a terrible start. It was bad enough that he had broken his arm. That was _certainly_ bad enough. But on top of that, a snake demon had dragged his cousin into a magical well. That was quite a few steps above “bad” and certainly into “horrific” territory. 

And yet none of it was as half as terrible as dealing with his aunt after the family had found him and half of a monster at the bottom of the well. 

Minako’s first reaction had been to scream her head off and she hadn’t stopped for the reminder of the afternoon. The snake’s lower half was still twitching as his grandfather and uncle fished him up from the bottom of the well, Takahiro carrying the teen on his shoulders and Grandpa Higurashi casting all manner of blessed talismans onto the corpse below.

“ _WE ARE CALLING THE POLICE, DO YOU HEAR ME?!_ ” Minako screeched, clawing at her sister-in-law’s arm. “ _SOME—SOME **THING** HAS TAKEN MY DAUGHTER!!!_ ”

Mrs. Higurashi glanced at her father-in-law, who was frowning deeply. 

“Minako…” he began, “there’s nothing the police could do. This is beyond the ability of normal humans.”

“ _NORMAL_ HUMANS?!” his daughter shrieked. “YOU _CRAZY_ OLD MAN!!! DO YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE THAT?! YOU’VE SPENT…SPENT MY _ENTIRE LIFE_ TELLING ME THESE STUPID STORIES AND NOW YOU EXPECT ME TO JUST—TO **JUST** —” She sunk slowly on her knees, relinquishing herself to frantic sobbing. Her husband, helping Souta to his feet, moved to her side and leaned down to try and help her back up.

There was a long silence in the wellhouse as the remaining Higurashi family looked from one to another.

“Souta,” the teen’s mother murmured, “we need to take you to a hospital.”

Souta looked down at his arm, which was still hanging at a horrible angle. He could feel the pain from it, acute and intense, but something more intense was stinging at the front of his mind. There was half a snake youkai in his family’s well. The other half was with his cousin. His smart-mouthed, spoiled, entirely _normal_ cousin. 

“Kagome’ll find her,” he said quietly, then repeated it louder. “Kagome will find her. And she’ll take care of her until she finds a way home.”

A moment of reprieve from Minako’s cries came as the older woman looked at her nephew. “Kagome—?”

Takahiro looked between his father- and sister-in-law, then back to his wife. “Let’s take Souta to the hospital,” he said suddenly, his deep voice contrasting with Souta’s still-deepening one. “We can’t call the police?”

Grandpa Higurashi shook his head. “I have a friend who can take care of the body. But the police won’t understand.” 

Takahiro’s frown deepened. “Then…we need to understand. You need to tell us everything.” Minako made a noise of protest, and he looked down at her sternly. “Minako, there’s seven feet of _something_ inside the well and that’s only half of it. I think we better start believing your father’s stories.”

____________________________________

  
Hours later, Souta lay on his bed, waiting for sleep to come. His broken arm had been reset and put in a heavy cast and sling. No surgery if you stay off it, the doctor had promised, so Souta was taking extra care with every single thing he did. At the moment, he was thinking about going to the bathroom, but only so he could have something to _do_. He knew that sleep was impossible at this point, despite the heavy pain medication in his system, but his mother was insisting that he get at least a few hours.

And as a child, he knew that meant the adults in his family were talking downstairs. Occasionally, Minako’s voice would rise in a shout or the masculine tones of his uncle and grandfather would drift up. He couldn’t make out many words, but that was possibly because of the pain meds. In fact, the ceiling had been spinning for a while now.

“Ugh,” he groaned, rolling off the bed as quietly as he could. Maybe he’d brush his teeth. They felt fuzzy. Was that the pain meds too? Or just bad teenage hygiene? Souta made a mental note to ask Hitomi if she’d ever had complaints about his oral hygiene. But how to word that in a way that didn’t come off like a perverted joke? Sure, he had had _those_ kind of thoughts about her, but that didn’t mean he was a per— 

“Oh right,” Souta slurred softly to himself. “There’s a dead demon in our well.”

It was strange to be unable to control his stream of thought like this, and Souta suddenly felt his mind sliding down a different path. Maybe he should go examine the well. Maybe he’d find something they had missed before. After all, between Minako’s crying and Souta’s broken arm, no one had really looked too closely at the dead snake youkai. Maybe there was something there that would help them figure out how the Bone Eater’s Well had opened up again.

Sneaking down the stairs was surprisingly easy. It was sneaking out the back door that took a good amount of stealth, and just as he thought he was safe, Buyo had meowed loudly at him. He hissed at the cat, then stood in silence, waiting to see if he was found out.

No sound from the living room, except the adults’ conversation. He was safe.

The wellhouse doors were still open and bright moonlight from tonight’s full moon streamed in through them, illuminating the well itself. Souta walked in, careful not to bang his slinged cast on the doorframe.

A sick scent of metallic blood flooded his nostrils and he recoiled slightly, willing the meager contents of his stomach to stay there.

“Snake youkai rot pretty bad,” a girl’s voice said to his left. 

“No kidding,” Souta replied, before his sluggish brain processed the presence and he jumped around in shock.

The girl standing at the other side of the well was tanned and dressed in a manner somewhere between fashion magazine and visual kei concert. She wasn’t much older than Souta, but quite a bit taller. Behind her, a giant cat was dragging the snake out of the well with its teeth.

“Is…is your cat on fire?” Souta asked as politely as he could. 

“Are you high?” the girl asked in turn. “That’s a nekomata, not a cat.”

The two stared at each other for a moment. 

“Watanabe Junko,” she said finally. “You’re the Higurashi shrine heir?”

“Err, I guess,” Souta answered. “I haven’t done all the formal training, so—” 

“So you’re not a priest, then?”

“Well, not exactly.”

Junko shrugged. “Not many young guys are these days.”

The nekomata had sufficiently pulled the half-corpse out of the well, and its master moved to examine it. She crouched down, pushing aside the sinewy body.  
  
“Uhh, what are you looking for?” Souta asked.

“The face, which I guess is on the other side?” Junko answered. “I hate magical portals. They’re so cantankerous.”

Souta tried to keep from snickering at that word, forcing his brain to remember that this was a Very Serious Time. Junko eyed him skeptically.

“Anyway, I’m taking this with me. Tell your grandpa that he owes the Taijiya a favor.”

“Wait, you’re just leaving?”

Junko blinked. “Well, _yeah_. I’m taking this big thing with me and I’m going back home.”

“Home? Where’s your home?” 

“What are you, a cop? I don’t even know you.” 

“Ahh, uhh, Higurashi Souta. That’s my name. Now you know me. You’re a taijiya? My sister used to talk about those. I didn’t know they were still around." 

The girl snorted. “There’s a lot I’d bet you don’t know, kid.” The giant nekomata she moved to climb onto made a snorting noise. “Oh hush, Kirara. I’ll feed you double tuna once we’re home.”

“Wait,” Souta called out, moving to grab a hold of the nekomata’s leg as it began to fly—‘ _The cat on fire is flying_ ,’ Souta’s brain thought stupidly— “I need your help. My cousin went missing. You know about magical portals? Can you help me?”

“That’s not my area of specialty. I'm just a human who kills things. You’re looking for the God of Passages, Chuuro.” 

“Churro?”

“Oh my _god_ , I am _done_ talking to you,” Junko groaned.

“Wait, wait,” Souta grunted, being dragged along the ground as Kirara began to move.

“Let go of my nekomata,” the girl muttered irritably.

“Take me with you. You can take me to this Churro person? Please?” 

“Chuuro. Chuu. Ro.” Junko hissed. “And no way. I don’t take normal humans anywhere. And I’ve got other jobs to do, so let go.” She reached down to pry at his fingers.

“I’m not a normal human, though! I could see your nekomata! I bet you keep an illusion over her so people who aren’t spiritually aware can’t see her flying around, don’t you?”

The older girl did a decent job disguising her surprise at the accuracy of his guess. “So? A lot of people can do that.” 

“Yeah, but I’m a Higurashi. My sister is Kag—”

“Kagome, the girl who destroyed the Shikon no Tama. Yeah, I know that.”

Souta looked surprised. “You do?”

Junko snorted. “Kid, your sister saved the entire world, humans and youkai alike. Of _course_ I know of her.”

Underneath her, Kirara made a funny sort of chirping noise and looked at her master.

“Seriously? You don’t even know him. I don’t care if he looks nice!” Junko grunted.

“Are you talking to your cat?” Souta asked. 

Junko cursed under her breath, before she regarded Souta carefully. “Kirara wants to take you to Chuuro.” 

“Great! Let’s go!” he cheered, trying to climb aboard. Junko cut him off at the pass, grabbing his leg before he could raise it up high enough.

“Listen here, you. I am a professional demon hunter,” she hissed. “I don’t trust anyone, and I won’t be stopped on my jobs by some untrained kid with spiritual awareness, even if he’s Higurashi Kagome’s brother. Are we clear?” 

“Crystal,” Souta muttered as he shook his leg in her grip. “Leggo of my leg.”

“This night is the absolute worst,” the girl muttered to herself as she released him and watched him climb aboard the nekomata. “I hate you for getting me into this, Kirara. I take back my promise of double tuna.” 

Kirara let out a serene meow and took off into the night sky.

_____________________________________  
  
 

Kiko was having a wonderful dream right after the impact of hitting the bottom of the well. In it, she was a college freshman with perfect hair, great makeup, and a recording contract. There was a full moon and she was sitting in its light having a picnic with three different boys, all madly in love with her and inhumanly attractive. One of them looked suspiciously like her favorite movie actor, but Kiko didn’t really notice. She was too busy being hand-fed grapes by Japanese hunks. She flung her designer shades over her eyes as the moon’s light intensified and chortled at her good fortune in life.

On a thin mattress in Kagome and Inuyasha’s floor, she opened her mouth and giggled inanely. Kagome glanced over from her sewing and then leaned over to readjust her younger cousin’s blankets. “Rin,” she murmured to her helpful assistant, “could you hand me some more of that poultice Lady Kaede made?”

The sound of her voice started Kiko out of her sleep. She shot straight up, yelping in a mix of surprise and pain from her ribs. Then she blinked, rubbed her eyes, and confusedly looked around the room. It was very…

“…old-fashioned…” Kiko muttered, wincing as she brushed her fingers over her ribcage. “Ow, ow…ow ow ow…”

“Don’t poke at them. We had to wrap them pretty tightly,” Rin chided, and Kiko started for a second time, turning to look at the girl.

“Who are _you_? And _why_ do you look like you rolled out of a living history exhibit?”

Rin grinned at her, not really understanding that second part. “I’m Rin. And you’re Tsukiko. How are you feeling? You’ve been asleep for most of the day.”

“No one calls me that seriously uncool name,” Kiko grumbled and rubbed her eyes, still looking around the room.   That is, until her gaze landed on her cousin’s face. 

“Ka— ** _KAGOME!?_** ” 

Kagome smiled, wincing at the shrillness of her cousin’s voice. She moved to wrap the girl up in a big hug. “It’s good to see you, Kiko. You aren’t too scared, are you?”

“Scared?” Kiko scoffed, then shook her head. “Nah…a little light-headed, maybe, though.” She hugged her cousin back as much as her ribs would allow, then moved to stand up. 

“Don’t move too fast. Take your time.”

“Oh, I don’t have time. I’m about to go find that obnoxious brother of yours—” Kiko rose shakily to her feet and headed towards the door, “—and tell him that the whole story about you living in the _freaking_ Feudal Era—” She opened the door, _geez this house was way too old-fashioned and tacky_. “—was complete and utter bulls—”

Shippou had been eavesdropping at the door in his balloon form and fell into Kiko when the door opened. The human girl took one look at the floating balloon with eyes and stopped dead in her tracks. 

“Oh hi, I’m Ship—” the balloon began politely. 

Kiko screeched. With a powerful smack of her right hand, she swatted the little kitsune out of mid-air and slammed the door shut.


	5. Living Dead Boy

Kohaku sensed the bear demon’s paw a moment before it came flying towards him, swinging his sickle straight up to deflect it with ease. Fighting youkai was becoming almost tedious now that he was able to always stay one step in front of his foe. At first, being able to sense demonic movements had been quite the novelty, and Kohaku had fancied himself perhaps gifted in the same manner of Miroku or Kagome. But the new had faded quickly, and Kohaku missed feeling the stress of fighting. It made him feel alive by grounding his very survival into his own abilities and not some magical shard embedding in his back or some undead miko’s blessing. 

He flicked his wrist and the sickle dug into bear’s flesh, jerking its whole body down onto the ground. He avoided another swipe from the demon’s free paw, then spun, bringing the sickle in a wide arc that send it flying across the bear’s neck. In a burst of blood, sinew, bone, and demonic energy, the head rolled away from the body.

Kohaku landed on the ground and wiped his forehead. It was perhaps a little harder to fight without Kirara’s assistance, but the nekomata had insisted on staying with Sango when he had visited the month before. Both he and Sango had contributed that to missing her former owner, but there was a nagging thought at the back of Kohaku’s mind that perhaps she had sensed a need to stay with his sister during this time.

He looked up at the night sky, admiring the spread of stars visible on such a clear night. On this night, the full moon was beginning to wane, and that only made the stars brighter. Kagome had once mentioned that stars were just other suns burning very far away, perhaps having their own Earths to keep warm. It was a dizzying idea to Kohaku, but he couldn’t help but be reminded of it tonight.

The villagers were emerging from their homes, cheering victoriously for their new savior. Kohaku felt nothing at this. Anyone could kill. It took far more strength to live and let live—something that as a demon slayer, he was directly employed _not_ to do. He bowed politely, accepting their payment as well as a few extra supplies for the trip to the next demon infestation, wherever it may be. There was even an offer of a farmer’s daughter for a bride, which Kohaku respectfully declined. He was not quite old enough to think about such manners. Besides, what bride would want a bridegroom with such blood-soaked hands?

It was only once he started back down the road that he realized how close he was to Sango’s home. He could go visit, seeing as he had two nieces and a nephew who would love to see him. But Kohaku’s instinct was to avoid such a crowded and lively place. He felt much more at home in places where the darkness was threatening all corners.

Kohaku took the fork in the road that would lead away from Kaede’s village, still deep in thought. With a bit more savings, he could begin to repair his family’s home. Neither he nor Sango had returned since Naraku’s death. Then, perhaps, other boys would plan to marry and become farmers. Kohaku could only imagine a future in which rebuilding his childhood home was a burden to be bookended by endless days slaying demons. So deep was he in thought that he didn’t feel the older man slip up behind him until he slung his arm around the youth’s shoulder.

“Well, well, well,” Miroku laughed, “seems I’ve run into my very own brother-in-law on this long and dark road! And moving away from his sister’s home, it seems. No visit this month, Kohaku?”

Kohaku started at the priest’s voice then flushed in embarrassment. “I was planning to head north.”

“Of course you were, my hard-working kin,” Miroku said genially, slapping Kohaku on the back. “Only, I think you misunderstand the pain you would cause your sister if she knew you were so close but did not stop by to see her and children. I’m myself returning home from a quick exorcism.” 

Kohaku grunted noncommittally.

“Then it’s settled. Back down the path and towards home? The twins will be delighted to have their uncle back. And little Sho, too. Sango’s been teaching him your name.” 

If it were possible to have arrows of guilt shot into one’s heart, Kohaku was certainly experiencing it at Miroku’s hands. Curse the gods for making their servants so hard to refuse.

___________________________  
  
  


It was early into the morning by the time Miroku and Kohaku arrived at Kaede’s village, but it seemed like everyone was already awake and working on their daily chores. From the whispers around them, the two men were assaulted by a bevy of gossip before they even reached the homes of their family and friends.

_“A demonness…?”_

_“Covered in the snake’s blood…”_

_“Says she’s her kin…”_

_“Wolves were nearby that night, too. **Youkai** wolves, at that!”_  

Miroku frowned. “Miss Kiko still appears to be the source of the local gossip.” 

Kohaku looked at him as both men increased their pace. “Who?”

“Kagome’s cousin. Quite a bit has happened in the past few days. The Bone Eater’s Well reopened for a brief moment. She came through with a snake youkai that was trying to kill her and Kagome’s brother.”

They reached Miroku and Sango’s home only a moment after Miroku’s recollection of recent events, and neither male removed his shoes before running inside. Sango was sitting by the fire watching her three children sleep. She rose the moment she saw her husband and brother together, rushing to embrace the two of them simultaneously. 

“Sango, what’s happened?” Miroku asked. “Has there been any change in Miss Kiko’s, err... _condition_?” 

Sango chuckled slightly. “If you mean, ‘has she left her room and stopped thinking we’re all part of some elaborate prank?’ No. And she’s been coming up with very…creative insults for those who try to enter. It’s been driving Inuyasha crazy. The villagers are convinced she’s either a miko or a devil. And you know how villagers gossip in these parts. That old rice farmer, Yoshio, knew I was pregnant with Sho before you did.”

Her husband sighed. “You’re joking. That’s a good sign. I was worried about leaving you to travel to that exorcism.” He bent down to remove his shoes, slapping Kohaku’s leg to remind the youth to do so as well.

“How did that go?” Sango asked, helping her husband remove his jacket.

“As good as can be expected when it’s not actually youkai, but rather young lovers trying to run off in the night together when one of them is already promised to the local shopkeeper.” Miroku looked at his brother-in-law. “Ahh, I remember when your sister and I were young lovers in the throes of our passion.”

Kohaku coughed loudly, blushing lightly as his sister smacked her husband upside the head. “Pardon my intrusion, Sango,” he mumbled, to his sister’s chagrin.

“I’ve told you, Kohaku, this is your home. And while I’m mentioning it, I wish you’d stay more. The girls miss you terribly. So do I. Sho barely knows you.” 

Kohaku pursed his lips and moved to remove his shoes and outer armor. Sango watched him for a moment, then sighed and returned her attention to her husband.

“Kagome wanted to talk to us about some things they’ve heard from recent travelers. Kohaku, she’d probably be happy to see you too, if you’re interested.”  
  
The boy nodded quietly. 

__________________________

 

The mood around Lady Kaede’s home was noticeably quiet as the three approached. Rin was visible in the backyard, carefully hanging a long stripe of snake-flesh from an eve of the house. Sango called out to her and the young girl jumped up and ran towards them, wiping her hands on her cotton kimono.

“Kohaku!!!” she called out excitedly. 

“Good morning, Rin,” the young man replied with a polite nod of his head.

“Have you come to stay for a while?”

Kohaku glanced at his sister and then frowned lightly. “I am not sure. It seems possible. But I will go where I am needed.”

“Ah,” Rin said cheerfully, “then it’ll be like old times, being together. I need to finish hanging this snake skin up to dry so Lady Kaede can preserve it for snakebite medicine, but everyone’s inside. They’re expecting Miroku anyway, so I’m sure they’ll be happy to see you!” 

Kohaku’s cheeks reddened slightly as she scampered off. Rin was, despite apparently taking part in the gruesome clean-up of a snake demon’s corpse, chipper as ever. It was inexplicable. She had lived a life similar to his, full of death and despair, and yet she still moved around with such ease and happiness. She had the power to bring a smile to even the greatest dog lord’s face, all the while possessing not a single ounce of spiritual energy. Rin was an enigma that Kohaku did not allow his brain to dwell too long on.

The moment they entered the house, it felt like a mosquito was buzzing in Kohaku’s ear. A bad sign. He moved ahead of Miroku and Sango, pushing open the doors to the side room where he could hear Kagome and Lady Kaede’s voices. The buzzing was coming from the side of the room and he turned his head instantly, staring at the figure sitting in one corner of the room. 

Shippou, face half-covered in mochi, smiled at him. “Hey, Kohaku!” 

The demon hunter sighed, relaxing his shoulders as his sister and brother-in-law came up behind him. Sango rested a hand on his shoulder silently, sensing his reaction. 

“Kohaku!” Kagome said, looking up in surprise, “what are you doing here?”

“I found him on the road,” Miroku said as he popped up behind the young man. “Coming home to see his beloved family, weren’t you, Kohaku?”

Kohaku coughed gently and flushed.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Sango apologized, but Kagome waved her off and motioned for the three to enter the room. Lady Kaede bowed her head briefly before returning to grinding some sort of herb. 

“Looks like you sensed Shippou well enough,” Kagome sighed, looking over at the kitsune as he ate. “Haven’t you had enough of that mochi? I bought that for Kiko.”

“Yeah, but she’s been getting all the good food,” Shippou replied, picking up another piece as he looked over at the closed door. “Besides, she’s the one who hit me when I was just trying to say hello!”  He looked down at his rice cake, whispering to himself, "I _deserve_ this mochi."

Kohaku looked at the door as well. Kagome followed his gaze.

“My cousin is…” she began, scratching her cheek embarrassedly, “…a little hard to handle. My aunt isn’t the easiest person in the world to deal with, and Kiko is her only child. She’s a little spoiled, but this wouldn’t be easy for anyone to handle. I freaked out too, the first time I came here.”

“Aye,” Lady Kaede began, “but you didn’t lock yourself in a room for two days.”

Kohaku felt that prickle of anxiety rising on his neck. Such situations, where personal conversation began around him, were hard for him to handle.

“I’m sorry I can’t be of more help. Please let me know if I can do anything,” he apologized quickly with a deep bow before he exited the room. Sango followed him after a second, perhaps sensing that her brother might slip away from the village again if she did not find a reason for him to stay. Miroku watched them leave, and then moved to settle across from Lady Kaede. 

“A group of travelers from the west said they saw an entire tribe of tengu slaughtered up in the northern mountains,” Kagome said, changing subjects. “Normally they give them an offering to pass, but when they got there, there were only corpses. The leader figured they’d been dead for a few months. They were mostly skeletons. Could it have been a hired kill?”

Miroku frowned. “There are very few demon hunters still out there, Sango and Kohaku included. But they have a code of conduct. An entire tribe, causing no harm to humans, wouldn’t be a target for them. A clan war they couldn’t handle, perhaps?”

“That is not the nature of tengu,” Lady Kaede answered. “They are wiser youkai than that. What they can solve through treaties and bribes, they will. They prefer smoke to the sword. They’d flee before they’d allow their numbers to be slaughtered as such.” 

Kagome nodded. “Inuyasha went to see if the wolves have heard anything about it. The remnants of the Northern Wolf Tribe should at least know what kind of relationships the tengu had with other groups. They shared a mountain range, although there was a bit of distance between them, I think.” 

“You sent Inuyasha with Kouga?” Miroku chuckled. “What did he do to make you so angry?” 

Kagome sniffled indignantly. “Nothing. It’s just good for him to learn to be diplomatic.”

“ _Diplomatic_ ,” Miroku repeated with a laugh. “Whatever you say, Kagome.”


	6. From One Mountain to Another

 

The marriage of Kouga and Ayame had unified the Eastern and Northern Wolf Youkai Tribes, and from the remaining tribes, refugees came en masse. Naraku’s reign of terror had left their numbers scarce and their scars deep, and now they numbered less than 400 members, where there had once been thousands. Each year of peace brought more marriages and newborns, but with many of their members already past their childbearing years, the growth was painfully slow.

To Inuyasha, who had grown up alone and hated, looking down at the wolves’ den from atop the mountain path was like staring into an existence he could never have. Voices raised in laughter, wolf helping wolf, a community alive and rejoicing in the winter sun. 

To Kai and Kouga, looking down at the same view, there was only the constant reminder of their loss, of how hard they’d have to climb to regain their previous numbers, their previous lifestyles. 

Ginta and Hakkaku, laden with fattened rabbits from the forest, were already moving down the mountain road to their home. 

“Just wait until the ladies see us with these!” Ginta crowed, puffing his chest out proudly. “This year’s Fire Moon will just be us batting the girls away like flies!”

Hakkaku let out an excited howl. “Maybe Lady Ayame can put in a good word ahead of time with some of the girls about our personalities, you know? How I’m really good at building a warm den in the winter and you’re great at listening to other people’s problems.”

“Hnnh,” Kouga snorted. “That’s the kind of stuff you want to rely on when the Fire Moon comes? House skills and _listening_?” 

“Hey, at least they didn’t get their wives to agree to marriage when they were just little kids,” Inuyasha chimed in from behind, snickering. “And listening would never be your strength anyway. Your ears are too full of your own shit.”

Kouga turned to glare at him. “What did you just say, dog?”

Inuyasha sneered. “Proved my point, mangy wolf.” 

“YOU STUPID DOG, I HEARD YOU, I WAS JUST—" 

Kai sighed, loping ahead at a slow trot when the den came into view. He glanced around and nodded to a group of older wolves crossing the open area. They nodded back, but there were no words exchanged—Kouga, Ginta, and Hakkaku had the right to speak to them freely, to joke and to catch up, but a cub like Kai had little worth until his manhood ceremony. And without other children his age, it meant a lonely life up in the mountains. Truthfully, Kai would never have been the most outgoing boy, so it suited him well enough. But at least Shinta was young enough to lead the newborn cubs. He was more social and he was especially lucky.

Kai supposed he was lucky too, lucky that Ayame had taken him in, that Kouga was teaching him the secrets of the clan in the event he didn’t live to teach his own child. Lucky that he had a den over his head and food in his stomach.

Lucky that he was alive in the first place.

That thought brought back a terrible memory of his elders and friends lying in pieces in the dirt. A badger staring at him with blood on its tongue. A demon with a sharp smile offering him glowing purple shards. His brother screaming in fear from inside a cocoon.

_Big brother, help me!_

Kai gritted his teeth.

“Big brother?” the small voice piped up beside him. Two hands tugged on his furs.

Kai looked down at his younger brother, who was wearing his usual apple-cheeked smile. 

“I’m home, Shinta.”

“Welcome home, big brother! Did you bring anything to eat?”

“As a matter of fact…” Kai smirked, pulling a wrapped-up mochi out of his back pocket. “What do you think about that?”

“Is it meat?” Shinta asked uncertainly, taking the mochi from his brother. “Wow, it smells nice!” 

“No, but it tastes good. And Ginta and Hakkaku have a lot of fat, juicy rabbits we can have tonight for dinner!”

“Yahoo!” the little wolf rejoiced, doing a small dance with the mochi held in both his hands.

Kai smiled down at him, rubbing Shinta’s fur hood affectionately. Underneath, the boy’s hair was mussing, but Shinta never complained. 

Inuyasha and Kouga had caught up to them. Ginta and Hakkaku had split off already, and Kai could hear them proclaiming to the nearest group of single ladies that they were the providers of tonight’s bountiful harvest.

“I caught half of those,” Kouga grumbled, walking towards his own private den. Outside the opening in the rock, Ayame stood with a smile.

“Yes, but you already caught yourself a wife,” she giggled as her husband wrapped her up in a long hug. 

Inuyasha blinked. “So, uhh, when were you planning on telling us about _that_?”        

Kouga pulled out of the hug and looked down at his wife’s swollen belly. “Wolves don’t tell outsiders about our kids until they’re born,” he said simply, shrugging. “It’s bad luck, like naming them before their first spring.”

“My milk name was ‘Pile of Leaves’,” Shinta added helpfully. Inuyasha looked down at him and cracked a grin.

“Ehh, is that pile of leaves talking to me? That’s weird!”

Kai snickered as his brother let out an indignant noise.

“I’m Shinta now! That was just my milk name!”

Inuyasha laughed out loud, mussing the boy’s hood and hair further. “Oh yeah, I remember now. Shinta the mighty little wolf youkai! Listen kiddo, why don’t you go show that mochi off to the other cubs?” 

Shinta, appeased by Inuyasha’s praise, nodded eagerly and pranced off towards the main village area. Kai turned to follow him.

“Stay, Kai,” Kouga said. “It’s good practice for you to be here for this kind of thing.”

The teen looked over his shoulder at his leader for a moment and then nodded.

 ________________________________

 

After Ayame’s grandfather passed, there were three elders left in the entire Northern Tribe. Those that had lived with Kai and Shinta’s pack were killed by Byakuya and the badger demon, and other Northern packs had experienced similar slaughters. Kin was a dusky grey wolf who did not possess a human form, like many of their kind. Jiki and Nikutama were black- and brown-haired, respectively, but there was a world of difference between their appearances. Even in old age, Nikutama’s brown hair sat atop his head like a windblown flame, but Jiki had only a small moustache left. Jiki had torn an ankle several years earlier, and now inactivity had left him huskier than many of the other wolves. Nikutama, on the other hand, was nearly skin and bones, with a reputation for feeding others before himself, even in these times of prosperity. ‘ _We must all take care of our future_ ,’ he’d say, cheerily checking on each pregnant woman’s portions first, before moving to the children, then the men.

Kin was the quietest of the group, but she was also the eldest by far. She was received first in the den, taking a high seat on the pelts in the center of the room. Despite her age, she still walked with a smooth gait, although it was much slower than many of the other wolves. She bowed her head to Kouga and Ayame, seated at the head of the den, and then watched Jiki and Nikutama as they entered behind her and took a seat. 

“I’m sure Kouga has already told you what happened to the Northern Tengu Tribe,” Inuyasha said immediately.

“No formalities first? You are really a dog,” Jiki grunted, crossing his legs. 

Inuyasha screwed up his face and opened his mouth to reply. But he managed to catch himself, dug his fingers into his folded arms, and kept his mouth shut. 

“Jiki is just being stubborn,” Nikutama said congenially. “He’s so old and crusty that he can’t help but be that way. We’ll give you any information we have, if it’ll help.”

Jiki shot his peer a nasty glance but remained silent.

“My pack was the farthest south of the Northern Tribe, so I never saw the tengu firsthand,” Nikutama continued. “But I heard stories. They were mountain hermits who protected their land with tricks and illusions meant to confuse and disable invaders. Humans who took their passes needed to bring gifts of sake, deer from down in the valley, or flowering tree seeds. They rarely saw the tengu, such was their skill with deception of the eyes.” 

“Deception,” Jiki repeated, interrupting. “Above all, they were deceivers. We would sometimes find our supply sheds disrupted, or our boys would go missing for an afternoon, tricked into embarrassing themselves for a tengu audience.”

“But no ill will, surely,” Nikutama pressed.

“Ill will?” Jiki spat. “Embarrassing wolves for their own amusement? That is ill will enough! Our pride as wolves—”

The old youkai was caught off by Kin’s low growl. She had raised up and watching the group intently. She continued to growl, then shifted between whimpers and whines, to something close to a bark.

Inuyasha looked at the various wolves, realizing they all understood what she was saying. “Uhh, can someone—”

Ayame nodded and began translating her elder’s words. “She says that she lived closest to the tengu village. They were troublemakers, to be sure, but they shared fairly in times of famine and bad winters.” 

Kai pursed his lips and looked at Kouga’s face. His leader was just as stoic as the wolf speaking.

“But something changed after rumors of Naraku and the Shikon no Tama began to come up the mountain,” Ayame continued, furrowing her brow. “The tengu realized that they would be in danger as mere youkai and tried to…”

“Tried to _what_?” Inuyasha insisted. 

“Tried to become kami,” Kouga finished. He was staring at Kin intently. “They tried to _shed_ their youkai skin and return to being kami, as they once were long ago. She said the last she heard before the pack had to flee Naraku’s followers was that the tengu were building something up in their mountain fortress. Something that would draw the gods’ attention, and perhaps their protection.”

Kin stopped speaking and looked Inuyasha square in the eye.

The hanyou rubbed his jaw. “Just when we think we’re done with the effects of Naraku, something he did back then catches up with us now.”

A long silence settled heavily over the group. Kai swallowed. His mouth was suddenly dry as a bone. Why couldn’t the past stay there? Why couldn’t Naraku’s influence stay dead with him? He clenched his fists over his knees until the knuckles turned white. 

Beside him, Ayame watched Kai’s fingers whiten. If it were the boy’s little brother, she’d reach over and envelop him in a tight hug. But Kai had come to her nearly grown, and already bore such adult burdens and a past no child should have had to endure. It would be an insult to treat him as a child, so she treated him as she would a younger brother, reaching out to gently rub his shoulder. He started and looked over at her guiltily. Like all boys his age, he didn’t like to get caught being too emotional. She gave him a gentle smile in return, silently promising to keep this slip between them.

“I’ll go to the north and investigate,” Inuyasha said finally. “If they built something up there, something they thought would protect them from Naraku, I want to know what it was.”

“Especially if it ended up being why they were killed,” Kouga agreed. “I’ll come with.”

Inuyasha looked over at the wolf leader. “No way. Not with your kid that close.”

Ayame nodded in agreement with him, a little too violently. Kouga snorted indignantly.

“Kid or not, there’s nothing up there but corpses, right? It’s hardly the most dangerous thing I’ve had to save your tail from.”

Inuyasha’s eyebrow twitched. “Oi, I am looking out for your kid here! Forget your damn ego for one second, why don’t you?!”

“The dog is right,” Jiki replied. “You should remain here with your wife. If you are lost, Kai is still too young to lead us.”

“The ensuing fight for pack leader might tear our alliance apart,” Nikutama agreed. 

Kouga grumbled, crossing his arms in anger. Ayame patted him gently on the leg. He glanced over at her, then down to her stomach, and paused a moment.

“Fine,” he muttered. “I’ll stay in the village. But someone has to lead this dumb dog. He’d get lost in those northern mountains.” 

Kin rose to her feet slowly. The other elders looked at her in shock.

“You are the eldest of our clan!” Jiki insisted. “Surely someone can go in your place!”

The female wolf made a low growling noise and Jiki grew quiet.

“What?” Inuyasha asked. “What did she say?”

The wolves all looked at one another.

“If the trip does kill her,” Ayame translated carefully. “At least she will pass in the lands of her birth, where her the spirits of her kin await her.” 

The entire room went silent again.

“Well then,” Inuyasha said after a moment, standing up. “What are we waiting for?”


	7. Crossing Thresholds

Riding a nekomata when he was on pain medication was probably not the best idea Souta had ever had. Kirara darted across the sky, pouncing off rooftops and skirting around buildings and clinging to Junko’s back, Souta tried to keep from vomiting.

“If you puke on me, I’m throwing you off,” the girl warned.

“I’m trying…trying not to,” he gurgled, leaning over with a groan. “Where are we going? _Please_ tell me we’re almost there.” 

Junko glanced over her shoulder at him. “Pretty close. Might be able to find someone to fix that arm of yours up, too.”

“Huh?” Souta asked, trying to get a good look at her face. “You know someone that can heal a broken arm?”

“Kid,” she smirked, “I know _everyone_.”

A few minutes later, Kirara descended suddenly, landing in front of a small block of tightly-packed shops on a main street. The humans walking to and fro on the street didn’t seem to notice. Souta chalked it up to the illusion on Kirara, or perhaps their lack of spiritual awareness entirely. Still, riding a giant nekomata in plain sight was a little unnerving. He glanced around, making sure no one was giving them a strange look as both teens dismounted Kirara. Junko was paying no attention to the people around them.

“Remember this street if you need to get back here,” Junko instructed. “Fujiwara, between 4th and 5th Street.”

“Fujiwara,” Souta repeated, looking at the row of small shops. A small, dimly lit alleyway ran between a wooden doll shop and an okonomiyaki stand. “Uhh, are we going in _there_?” He turned to look at Junko and Kirara. The nekomata was already dragging the snake body through the alleyway, seemingly unencumbered by its size.

“You really don’t know a lot about youkai, _do_ you?” Junko said, half-surprised. “At least, not the _real_ ones.” She didn’t wait for Souta to defend himself—really, the girl didn’t seem to _care_ if Souta _could_ defend himself—and walked straight into the alleyway. It was just broad enough to accommodate her shoulders, but the broader Souta found himself walking sideways to get through.

The alleyway grew darker and thinner as they walked, until Junko was walking sideways and Souta was holding his breath. She didn’t seem to slow, or even notice as the walls began to scrape her sides.

“Are you sure we’re—” Souta began just as the alleyway sudden burst open into a wide, colorful space. “Oh my god,” he gasped, taking in the scene around him. 

The buildings that had surrounded the Fujiwara alleyway were no longer visible, and instead, little alleyways speckled a long wall that the two teens had just come from. People were coming in and out of the alleyways in a calm, mundane manner, as if squeezing through such small spaces was a daily activity for them. 

It took a double-take for Souta to realize that they were all youkai. 

Tall and small alike, dressed in eclectic mixes of traditional garb or the simple salaryman’s suit and tie, the youkai represented every group Grandpa Higurashi had ever told Souta about—and then some. Schoolgirls with horns sprouting out of their long bangs, a lamp with one eye jumping around, a gaggle of young foxes playing with spinning tops on the street—it was overwhelming.

By the time Souta turned and looked at the gate, he was past overwhelmed. He was dumbfounded. The gate in front of them was nearly 100 feet tall, ornately carved, and delicately painted in bright reds, greens, and gold. Dragons guarded each end, and Souta realized that the dragons were _moving_. Between its open doors, youkai poured in and out. Beyond the opening was what looked like a stacked city of lantern-lit shops and traditional homes.

“Oh my _god_ ,” he repeated when speech finally came back to him. Far ahead of him, Junko turned around and waved. 

“Hurry up!” she shouted over the crowd, and Souta fought to make his way to her and Kirara. 

“This is…this is…” he panted once he was back at her side. They crossed under the gate together, his gaze drawing upward to the dragons as they moved, the detail in the carving, the color on the pillars. 

“Amazing? Yeah, I guess so,” Junko said as if mildly bored, but Souta could see the small smile on her lips.

Through the gates, the youkai city opened up, rising high in towers of shops and homes held together by sturdy wooden staircases. The height of them made Souta a little dizzy, but he looked up nonetheless as they navigated the streets to try and see all that he could. A fish vendor was arguing prices with a panther deva. Two yuki-onna solicited customers for the ice cream café behind them. A youkai with a long, bare head was reading a newspaper on a nearby bench while waiting for the bus. Souta was pretty sure he was having a pain med-induced dream now. 

“Whew!” An oni running a nearby stand yelled, motioning for them to come closer. “That a full-grown snake, Junko? Who was the unlucky sonuvabitch to end up with that in his house?” 

“The Higurashi Shrine, if you’d believe it,” Junko replied, jerking a thumb towards Souta. “This is their heir. Don’t worry, he’s not nearly as impressive as his sister. Souta, this is Kuromaru. He’s the best cell phone repairman in this part of town. And if you ever have anything electrical break down, he can probably fix it too.”

“Guilty as charged,” the oni boomed. Souta looked up at the sign on his shop and saw what looked to be images of beautiful youkai girls modeling cellphone brands that he had never heard of.

“Hito in?” Junko asked, glancing behind the shopfront into the house behind it.

Kuromaru glanced behind him. “Yeah, he got in from his afterschool club a few minutes ago.” The oni paused, taking a deep breath. Junko clapped her hands over her ears, but Souta was just a second late in following suit as Kuromaru yelled, “ ** _HITOMARU, GET OUT HERE, SON!_** ” 

There was a thick rumbling sound as a young boy came from the back of the house. He was nearly nine feet tall, Souta realized in horror, and looked like he was built from brick rather than flesh.

“What is it, Pa—hey, Junko! Jeez, where did you find _that_ thing?   It’s massive!”

Junko smirked. “That’s something coming from _you_. This is Souta.” She pushed the younger boy forward. “ _Higurashi_ Souta.”

Hitomaru’s eyes grew as large as saucers. “Higurashi?!” he yelped, pushing his dad aside to climb out the cellphone repair stand’s side door. He grabbed Souta’s uninjured hand up in both of his, shaking it vigorously. 

“Err…nice to…meet you,” Souta panted between being quaked by the handshake.

“Ease up, Hito,” Junko muttered, slapping the oni teen’s shoulder with the back of her hand.

“Sorry, sorry!” Hitomaru laughed, releasing Souta’s hand. He rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly. “I don’t always know my own strength. I just…wow, a Higurashi! I never thought I’d meet someone related to the woman who destroyed the Shikon no Tama! I mean, we learn all about that in history class, but you never think—”

“History class?” Souta asked in confusion. 

“It’s a long story,” Junko replied, looking down the nearest corridor. “I need to take this to my house and then we can look for Chuuro. Finding a god in a place like this might take a while, though. Not to mention one that just goes wherever he wants at any given time.” 

“You’re looking for Chuuro?” Hitomaru inquired, following Junko and Kirara as they began to walk down the street. “I’m sure someone around here has seen him recently.” 

“Umm,” Souta interrupted, raising his free hand slightly. “Can I ask, where exactly _is_ here? How are we here? We were just in town, and now we’re—” He motioned with his hand to the buildings around them. “This is definitely _not_ Tokyo.” 

Hitomaru and Junko glanced at each other as they walked, and the girl motioned for the oni to take over.

“Well, actually it _is_ Tokyo,” he said politely, gazing fondly at the youkai crowds surrounding them. “This is the youkai district of Tokyo, where we can live alongside humans without fear of violence or misunderstanding. Your sister was pretty instrumental in helping us get to this point, you know. Human-youkai relations improved drastically during her lifetime, and then as human civilization grew, youkai established treaties with them and moved into places like this. There are laws in place to protect both races, of course, but there are so few violations and we have an entire taskforce for when they do happen.”

Souta blinked. “Wait. Do any humans know about this place?”

Hitomaru shrugged. “The spiritually aware ones, like Junko here, or ones in power. Most of the priests in Tokyo know about it, for example. But as long as there’s peace, it’s beneficial for both of us. More people in a city, human or youkai, and there’s more spending, more brainpower, more tax money.”

“Youkai pay taxes?” Souta gawked.

“We’re Japanese citizens, aren’t we?” Hitomaru said with a grin. “We officially call this district ‘Seimei City,’ but a lot of us just call it Tokyoukai.”

“No one calls it that,” Junko called over her shoulder. “Absolutely _no_ _one_. Hito, stop trying to make that a thing.”

The oni pouted slightly. “It _could_ be a thing, though! It’s pretty clever!”

Falling slightly behind them in step as they began to argue over Japanese wordplay, Souta tried to digest everything he was hearing. An entire district made only for youkai to live out their lives, just like humans. Treaties in place with political leaders to keep everyone safe. An entire history of human-youkai relations that had never made it to his school textbooks. 

He looked down at his watch to check the time. Within a 24-hour time span, this had become the strangest day of his life.

  
And it didn’t seem on track to make sense anytime soon.

_______________________

  

“What are you doing?” Rin asked when she found Kiko perched atop a dresser, staring out the window in her room.

Kiko looked over at her and then motioned for her to climb up. Rin paused for a moment, laid the clean linens she had brought down on the floor, and climbed up beside the older girl. The window was small and thin, but it gave Rin a perfect view of what Kiko was watching outside: Kohaku gathering firewood.

“He’s pretty cute, yeah?” Kiko said casually. “Do all boys around here wear such short clothes?”

Rin stared at her. “Yeah, I guess so.” 

Kiko smacked her lips. “That’s one point in this godforsaken place’s favor, I suppose. Do you guys ever go on group dates?” 

“Dates…?”

“You _know_ , when you go out with a few girlfriends and some boys and you all flirt with each other and then if you like one of them, you give him your number, and—man, you have NO clue what I am talking about, do you?” 

Rin smiled innocently at her.

Kiko let out a frustrated noise loud enough to attract Kohaku’s attention outside. He straightened up, arms full of firewood, and looked around until he located the two girls staring at him from a high vent window. 

“Rin, what are you two doing…?” he asked, and the younger girl smiled at him. 

“I’m Kiko,” the older girl interrupted with a wave. “Hi.”

Kohaku had enough good sense to bow slightly in confusion before he walked back towards Sango’s house with his load of firewood.

Kiko sighed, then turned around and jumped off the dresser with a exaggerated landing. “What’s he like?”

Rin climbed down a little more carefully. “Kohaku? He’s very kind-hearted…but I guess he’s a little bit of a loner.” 

“A kind-hearted loner,” Kiko repeated with a dreamy sigh. “Exactly my type.”

Rin blinked. “Didn’t you say that Hotaka from down the road was exactly your type yesterday?”

Kiko raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“Well, they’re quite different. Hotaka is pretty easy-going and likes having fun, but Kohaku is more quiet and—”

The older girl held up a hand to cut her off. “Rin, how old are you?”

“Thirteen.”

“Well then, _that_ explains it,” Kiko said, puffing her chest out. “I just turned fifteen, so I know a lot about boys. They may be different in their personalities, but _here_ —” She tapped over her heart. “They’re all the same. They just need a good girlfriend who they can buy things for and who will make sure they don’t dress badly and stuff like that. That’s what love is about. Sometimes you even have to be mean to the boy you like so that he’ll understand you like him. Do you understand?”

Rin nodded, not truly believing this. It had become apparent in the past few days that acquiescing to Kiko’s strange ideas about the world was easier than trying to debate with her. Unaware of Rin’s accurate awareness about this whole situation, Kiko continued on.

“That’s why you should always have as many boys you’re talking to as possible. It’s just a big game, and you don’t have to take it seriously.”

“Uh-huh,” Rin agreed without agreeing, moving to change the bedding on Kiko’s mat. 

Sensing the girl’s attention waning, Kiko doubled up on her dramatics. “By the way, I’ve decided to leave the room today.” 

Rin bit this bait. “You are? Kagome will be really happy about that. When are you going to leave?” 

Kiko reached into the bag she had had slung over her shoulder when the snake had dragged her through the well. As Rin watched, she pulled out a pair of sunglasses and slipped them over her eyes. She checked her appearance in a small hand mirror on the dresser, adjusting a piece of her hair and pinching her cheeks lightly until color came to them.

“I suppose, right about now,” she said in a loud voice, and then threw the sliding door separating the bedroom from the main room open in a smooth movement.

In the main room, Kagome, talking in low tones with Inuyasha, looked up in surprise. “Kiko! You opened the door!”

“Of course I did, Kagome,” Kiko replied in a strangely haughty voice, walking into the room as though she were a princess deigning to speak to her servants. “I’ve come to talk to you about this entire situation.” 

“This…entire situation?” Kagome asked, glancing at her husband. Inuyasha already looked annoyed.

“Yes. As I see it, it’s _your_ fault I’m in this mess in the first place, since you’re the one who did that thing with that pearl thing.” 

“The Shikon no Tama,” Rin chipped in helpfully, following after Kiko with an armful of dirty laundry.

“Yes, thank you, Rin,” Kiko nodded. “The Shikon no Whatever. Since you’re to blame—”

“Wait a minute,” Inuyasha began, leaning forward aggressively. “You do realize that Kagome saved the entire world?”

The teenager in front of him seemingly showed no emotion. He wanted to rip those stupid glasses right off her face. 

“Kiko,” Kagome began diplomatically. “I know this is a pretty big shock, but try to be _reasonable_ —”

“Reasonable?” Kiko said, raising her tone as only an expert in tantrum-throwing could. “ _Reasonable_? I’m going to miss god-knows-how-much school because of this, and I go to a _nice_ school, might I remind you. A private academy. My parents pay good money for it, too. I might even miss my high school exams because of this! My entire future is up in the air!”

“Well, that’s true enough,” Kagome admitted, remembering her own struggles to stay on top of schoolwork. And that had been when she could travel freely between her era and this one. Kiko was, admittedly, pretty stuck here for the time being. 

“Not to mention that I have to live in _squalor_ ,” Kiko continued, not satisfied enough with that victory. “There are no karaoke bars here, or cafés, or movie theaters, or anything else that civilized human beings need to live their lives without going stir-crazy!”

Inuyasha snorted derisively, but Kagome pressed a hand against his chest to keep him from saying anything. He glanced over at her, reading the anger slowly rising on her features, and decided to stay out of this one.

“I’m going to go ahead and start gathering the supplies I’ll need for the trip,” he told Kagome as he stood and left the room.

Kiko followed him with her gaze and then turned back to Kagome with a nasty look.

“Don’t,” Kagome warned dangerously. “Don’t even _go_ there.”

“Go where? I can’t go _anywhere_! And you’re living with a bunch of…a bunch of monsters here! You’re even _married_ to one! Doesn’t that bother you? He’s not even hum—”

“BE QUIET!” Kagome yelled, slamming her hands on the table in front of her. Kiko and Rin both jumped, and the younger girl made an excuse to quickly leave the room. Panting, Kagome stared her cousin down, before leaning over and ripping off the sunglasses on her face.

“Hey!” Kiko shouted in protest, scrambling to try and take them back. “Those are designer! You better not scratch them!”

“There are people _dying_ ,” Kagome hissed. “There are people dying and we are trying to figure out why and you are sitting here _complaining_ because you have a roof over your head and food in your stomach and you expect me to…to listen to you criticize my husband? Because you don’t understand anything but you _think_ you do?”

“I understand plenty!” Kiko growled in protest.

“No, you DON’T. And I know that scares you, god, I know how scary it is, but Kiko, I _cannot_ take care of these issues and deal with you acting like this on top of everything else on my plate.”

Kiko twisted her mouth but stayed quiet.

Kagome watched her a moment before she handed her sunglasses back over. “People around here are not used to girls like you. But these are my friends and family, and you will _not_ talk badly about them. Besides, two 'monsters' found you and one of them pulled you out of that well. So before you go off pretending you know _anything_ about youkai—”

Kiko squared her shoulders. “Whatever, Kagome,” she said curtly, turning her head to look at a screen in the corner of the room.

The older girl sighed and pushed up from the table. She moved on her knees towards her cousin and wrapped her arms around the girl’s shoulders. 

“I promise I will find a way to get you home. I _promise_ ,” she said quietly. “But you have to give me time, okay?” 

Kiko remained silent, jaw tightened.

“Go on, go outside and look around the village,” Kagome said after a moment, releasing her. “You’ve been cooped up in the house long enough.” 

The teen rose quickly, shuffling out of the room at a measured speed. Not trying to give away that she was going off to cry, Kagome knew. _Oh Kiko_ , she thought with a tinge of sadness, _I’m sorry I can’t break through to you. I guess the gap between our lives is larger now than ever_. 

Kiko made her way outside easily enough—the house was not large enough to be confusing and the path was relatively obvious—and stood on the porch, staring at the snowy landscape in front of her. A small village road, flanked with snow-covered houses, a small shrine to the right, a river cutting through farther to the left. 

“This _sucks_ ,” she said aloud, shivering against the cold. She considered it again, then yelled:

“ ** _THIS SUCKS!!!_** ”

The tears started quicker than she had expected, and she wiped them away on the sleeves of the kimono. It was borrowed from Rin, and, admittedly, it was quite pretty. At least there was a girl close to her age here, right? Kiko rubbed her eyes again, trying to will the tears down.

“You’re too classy to be crying on a crappy porch in a crappy village,” she muttered to herself, but it came out in soft sobs and hiccups. She squatted down, burying her face in her knees. 

There was a noise in the distance and she looked back up. At Sango’s house, Inuyasha was talking to Miroku, Shippou, and what looked like a giant wolf. Oh _god_ , they were talking to a wolf. The wolf was probably talking back. That would be just whack-a-doodle enough to make sense for this horrible situation. 

“ _Horrible_ situation,” Kiko repeated to herself quietly, watching the group off in the distance. Sango had come outside now, children gathered around her, and Kohaku joined them a moment later. Rin made her way over from Kaede’s house as well, carrying a sack of supplies for Inuyasha, and even Kagome came from the back of the house, acknowledging her cousin with only a pat on the head as she went to see her husband off. She watched all of them, talking and laughing, hugging and well-wishing. It made something in her stomach tighten and ache, and she tried to quickly push that feeling as far away as possible. It was making her shiver harder than ever.

There was abrupt whip of wind across the porch, then, and Kiko squeaked, covering her face against it. She stayed crouched in silence for a moment, before she realized that it had ended almost as quickly as it had begun. The only proof that it had even happened was the settling snow that drifted around.

That, and the blanket over her shoulders. She blinked and looked at it. It was one of the ones from Kagome’s main room. After a second, she glanced back up at Sango’s house.

There was a new person over with the group. She recognized him as one of the youkai who had pulled her from the well on the first day. He said something to the wolf beside him and then turned to look at her. She stared at him for a moment, before she realized that he could _see_ her staring at him, and made a hasty retreat back into the house in a rare show of propriety. Today was not the day to talk to youkai when four days ago, she hadn’t even known that they were real. She’d tackle that tomorrow, maybe, if she felt in the mood for it. 

One day at a time, which was alright since it seemed that all she had right now _was_ time.


	8. A Change in the Air

“You don’t find me scary?” the headless frog asked, disappearing in a puff of smoke. In his place, a giant spider appeared. “How about _this_ , then?”

Emiko stared at him for a moment before she broke into a fit of giggles. Beside her, Etsuko showed little interest in Shippou’s transformations. Sho, barely two years old, began to tug on one of the spider’s legs.

“Jeez, you kids are so hardened,” Shippou muttered, transforming back to his real form and prying Sho off his arm. “Kids are supposed to be scared of things. It builds character.”

Rin giggled playfully to his side. “That explains why you’re so full of personality.” 

The kitsune made a pouting whine and looked over at her as she stitched up one of Sho’s socks. “When will everyone else be done with all the hatsumode things? I’m so _bored_ with all the others working on it and Inuyasha gone up north.”

“Lady Kaede says that they should be done with preparations by a day or two before. Since she and Kagome will be in the shrine, lots of people will want to come visit. Kagome’s been making a lot of omamori for the guests.” 

Shippou smiled evilly. “And with all those visitors, I can get lots of practice on my tricks and illusions! I need to train for the next round of kitsune exams. I don’t want to be kicked out of my spot!” 

Etsuko held up a drawing for the two older children to examine.

“That’s very pretty,” Rin admired. “Shippou, you better not cause too much trouble. Kagome and Lady Kaede will be mad.”

The kitsune stuck out his lower lip. “Killjoy. Besides, you’re just as likely to cause a stir if Sesshoumaru shows up like he always does when there’s a lot of humans in the village.”

“He’s only checking up on me,” Rin said, inverting the sock so she could check her work. Satisfied, she reached over to scoop Sho off the floor and began the arduous process of putting a sock on a two-year-old that explicitly did not _want_ to wear socks.

“Shippou!” Emiko cried out, “Shippou, I wanna build a snowman!” 

The fox looked at her. “But we just did that this morning,” he whined. 

Emiko stared at him for a moment and then turned to her twin. Etsuko, engulfed in her artwork, didn’t notice until her sister grabbed her arm and gave it a pinch. The quieter twin looked up then, and the two began to speak in the strange gibberish they had invented.

“Me too,” Etsuko said after something that clearly resembled a bargain. “I want to build a snowman too.”

Rin glanced at Shippou as the youkai sighed.

“Fine,” he muttered, “but if you get colds, I’m telling your mom that it was your decision.” 

“YAY!” Emiko screeched, jumping to her feet. “YAY YAY **_YAY_**!!!” She ran into the next room, clearly gathering her warmest clothing.

“Can Kiko come?” Etsuko added to her sister’s joyful screams as she stood up and carefully dusted crayon shavings off herself. “She says funny things.”

“Err, well…” Rin and Shippou said in unison, looking over at the bedroom that Kiko had sequestered herself in yet again after breakfast. The quiet twin looked at them with her most pleading expression. 

“Okay, okay,” Rin laughed. “I’ll see if she’s up for it.” The teen scooted across the floor, towards the door and leaned her ear against the thin paper.

“What kind of girl makes another girl afraid to just knock first…” Shippou murmured to himself and Sho, who was now rolling around on the floor.

Rin glanced over at him and frowned. She looked back at the door and politely knocked on the wood frame. “Kiko? The girls want to go play in the snow. Do you want to—?”

The door slid open quickly and Rin nearly fell over in surprise. On the other side of the door, Kiko sat, legs crossed and dressed in a simple kimono with hakama and tasuki tying her sleeves up out of her way.

“Have you been…were you just _waiting_ there _this whole time_ for someone to talk to you first?” Shippou asked in amazement.

“I’ve decided to pull my weight around here,” Kiko announced, ignoring him.

“That’s only because Kagome scolded you yesterday. I could hear it from outside,” Shippou snickered. 

“You dirty eavesdropper!” Kiko hissed. 

“Ah, err…” Rin replied. “That’s…uhh, great. That’s great! We can definitely use the help!”

Shippou’s spying forgotten, Kiko turned back to the younger girl, preening in the idea of being useful. Emiko came running back from the other room, stopping to look at her. 

“Kiko is going to play with us?” she asked in a hopeful tone as she threw Etsuko’s coat at her. The chipper child did nothing gently. 

“No, no,” Kiko replied, straightening her back. “As a grown woman, I have to help around the house, Emiko. You’re too young to understand, but games for children.”

Emiko stared at her blankly for a moment and then began to giggle.

“Hey, you…” Kiko grunted, narrowing her eyes. “I’m not joking.”

“Even the four-year-old has no faith in you,” Shippou teased. “That’s a bad si—” A teacup came flying at his head and he shrieked, dodging it by a hair. “DON’T THROW THINGS AT ME!!!”

“Kiko’s aim improves when she’s insulted,” Rin observed as she put Sho on her back and tied him to her tightly. “I think Kohaku is chopping up firewood. We could see if he wants to play as well.” 

Kiko paused in chucking blankets at Shippou. “Kohaku! I’m _sure_ he won’t want to play.” She held a hand up to her mouth coyly. “He’s a grown-up, like me. We have other important things to consider. Like,” her eyes grew shiny and she clasped her hands together, “like our courtship.” 

Shippou rolled his eyes, ushering the twins towards the door once they were fully dressed. “Someone _definitely_ misunderstands your uncle,” he whispered to the girls conspiratorially, moments before Kiko hit him the back of the head with one of the twins’ wooden dolls. 

“ ** _OWWW, WOULD YOU STOP HITTING ME ALREADY?!!_** ”

_______________________

 

The northern mountains spread in front of them, wide, dark, and inviting. A place that generations of youkai had used as homes and protection from human civilization. A place that held innumerable secrets, innumerable stories.   

Inuyasha took in the sight of them, before looking over at the wolf who was his companion for this journey. “Are we close?”

Kin did not speak, but instead padded on. She had kept a breakneck speed for the past two days, much to Inuyasha’s surprise. At her age, he had expected her to ride Kirara alongside him, but she often chose to travel on her own four legs.

“You know, Inuyasha,” he said to himself dryly, “next time you go on a long trip, take someone who actually can talk to you.”

Kirara rushed after the she-wolf, the hanyou holding onto her mantle. As they navigated the midlands between mountains, it became clear that few youkai still dwelled in these parts.

“That’s strange,” Inuyasha muttered. “They should come flocking back once the Shikon no Tama and Naraku were destroyed.”

Each peak in the range, littered with its caves and valleys, had a specific smell to it. Badger youkai had lived in a lower southeastern peak, while a kitsune den stunk from a lower valley. Each location was entirely deserted. The stink of slaughter still hung in some places, but others seemed preventatively abandoned, rather than razed to the ground.

He smelled the first wolf den long before they reached it.

It was not one where the inhabitants had been able to escape first.

Kin stopped suddenly, sniffing the ground as she moved from skeleton to skeleton. Armor clung to some, but the smaller ones wore only shredded furs. Inuyasha thought back to Kai and his brother, Shinta, too young for a warrior’s armor and clad in only the furs of children. Their young friends and elders had been slaughtered like this, too.

“They’ve been dead for years,” he muttered, surveying the den carefully. “I guess that’s the only good thing about all of this. There’s been nothing recent.” Each skeleton, bleached white from the sun that streamed through the front of the cave, seemed more like a grave marker than a body.

Kin turned to him, her golden eyes deep and unreadable. Yet, somehow, he understood.

“You’re right. We’re almost there. Let’s keep going.”

______________________

 

Kyuzetsu stood over Souten’s shoulder, watching her carefully drag her brush across the paper.

“Milady has such excellent handwriting,” he hummed in approval. “But that is befitting a demon of such high status.” 

Kouryuu watched from the side of the room as Souten slowly wrote out the challenge. The emissary had an elaborate list of requirements: not too long, not too revealing, enticing but not desperate. The young youkai was not overly skilled with words, so it was a struggle for her, yet she tried to temper that in her own confidence. Kouryuu noticed how the hand she kept pressed in her lap was shaking ever so slightly. 

“Perfect,” he said as she finished and laid the brush aside. The tengu reached down, snatching the paper up before the ink had even dried and examining it closely. “Truly, you are gifted with the gift of persuasion.” He held the paper at a distance from his face and began to read. “ _Human filth, I, Souten of the Thunder Demon Tribe, will destroy your lines with the thunder and lightning of heaven itself. When the very last of you lie in pieces, I will bury your body under the very earth that will then pass to the youkai of the land._ ”

Kouryuu glanced at his mistress, who was staring at her table, knuckles clenched.

“This is truly inspiring, Lady Souten,” Kyuzetsu praised, rolling the paper into a tight scroll. “I will have it sent to every human village near this valley. After we obliterate the first wave of human trash, we can send later letters with skulls. Humans will need a little more motivation if they have to travel further—lazy garbage.”

Souten remained silent, nodding her head in agreement. She hadn’t spoken much since Kyuzetsu had returned with his master’s soldiers. Kouryuu did not blame her for that.

Kyuzetsu stood back, watching her for a moment. There was something suddenly there on his face that Kouryuu did not like, but it was gone in a flash, replaced with his usual amiable expression.

“I will take my leave now, Lady Souten,” he said with a bow. “Please, rest for now. I will tell you when they arrive at our gates.” 

Souten nodded firmly after a moment, almost as though she hadn’t processed what the tengu had said. The emissary bowed again, then pushed open the paper door to his left and exited. The young thunder youkai watched him leave, his footsteps ominously heavy on the floors. When they were finally gone, she rose and exited out the back. From this room’s patio, she could overlook the open main entrance area of the castle. She stood there, hands over the railing, and stared down at the soldiers keeping camp.

Kouryuu followed after her, floating near her shoulder. Below them, fifty or so figures stood in absolute silence, staring back up at them. Large, dark beings made only of some sort of shiny black material and wearing unpainted noh masks over their face, they had not been what Souten or her dragon companion had been expecting. They had stood there from the moment they entered, never speaking nor moving. No food touched their lips and they required no water or sleep.

No, indeed, they were much more _terrifying_ than anything Souten or Kouryuu could have expected. 

“Lady Souten,” the dragon said quietly. “Are you still confident with your decision to do this?” 

The young youkai did not show much emotion on her face, but the dragon noticed how she dug her nails into the railing.

“Yes,” she replied sharply.

Kouryuu closed his eyes. His mistress was lying.

______________________

 

“This is…really not necessary,” Kohaku mumbled as Kiko took the axe from his hands.

“No, no,” she said in a strangely high voice. “I _insist_. It’s woman’s role to help man, wouldn’t you say?”

The older teen looked parts confused, parts embarrassed. “Err, I suppose so.” 

“Then it’s settled! I’ll chop the wood and help you carry it into the house. And then when you’re done earlier, perhaps we can—” she lowered her eyes demurely, “—share some tea and discuss our dreams for the future.”

Kohaku’s expression went to straight bewilderment and he looked to Shippou and Rin for help. The two younger teens shrugged simultaneously, although Kohaku couldn’t help noticing that they were both smiling impishly. Emiko, Etsuko, and Sho sat off to the side, creating a small castle out of snow.

“Now, let me just stretch first…” Kiko said cheerfully, leaning the axe against her leg as she stretched her arms over her head.

“ _Stretch_?” Kohaku whispered to himself, exasperated. Kiko had rejected his last few excuses for needing to leave, but maybe if he said that he—

A buzzing at the side of his head made him turn suddenly to look at the wolf youkai jogging in from the woodsline. Kohaku’s muscles didn’t immediately relax, but when the young wolf looked over at him and their eyes met, he shook his head slowly and returned his attention to the rest of the group. Only Rin looked over to see what he had seen.

Kohaku noticed the way Rin’s shoulders suddenly tensed and the young girl looked over at the small children nearby. It was mostly an old habit, he recognized, but it was one that she had gotten good at disguising. Shippou and Kiko didn’t even seem to notice Kai in the first place, or Rin’s reaction to the wolf. Then again, Kohaku thought dryly, Kiko wasn’t too observant in the first place. 

Kai, understanding from Kohaku’s signal that Kin and Inuyasha had not returned, stopped and surveyed the village from afar. He had a certain amount of curiosity about humans that always seemed to get him assigned to visiting their village when Kouga wanted to know if Kin was back. That, coupled with his natural speed, had made him a regular visitor in the past several days—not that he really interacted with most of the group. It had not occurred to Kai that he would learn more about humans if he would actually _talk_ to them, but as the wolf tribe placed little import in trading or interacting with humans, that wasn’t a surprise. Kohaku had thought at least twice that Kai often acted more like he was bird-watching instead of interacting with other sentient beings.

And now the young wolf sat down suddenly in the snow, crossing his legs lazily as he watched Kiko finish stretching her arms and reach down to hoist up the axe. 

“Now,” she said in a chipper voice, “let me show off my excellent domestic skills.” 

“This is going to be _so_ great,” Shippou whispered, already on the edge of his seat. Rin and Etsuko covered their eyes. Kohaku braced himself, ready to catch the axe before it ended up lodged in one of their skulls. 

Kiko heaved her arms up, the axe tight in her grasp. But when her arms extended fully, the axe swung out, hurling behind her in a wide arc like a thrown stone. 

Shippou burst out laughing so hard that he nearly fell over. Rin peeked between her fingers, seeing the axe in motion in air, and stifled back a giggle. Kohaku just sighed. The axe flew high, towards the woodsline, far to the left of Kai. The teen watched it from his seat in the snow, not moving until the last second, when he was up in a flurry of snow and wind and catching the axe with one hand at the end of its arc.

“Do that again!” Emiko shouted, accidentally destroying her part of the snow castle with a wide, excited sweep of her arms.

“Yes, please do,” Shippou said between laughing sobs. 

All the older children paused, staring at the youkai in the distance. Kiko, recovering from her embarrassment after a moment, raised an arm over her head and waved. 

“HEY, YOU!” she shouted, cupping her hands over her mouth. “BRING THAT BACK, WOULD’YA?”

Kai stared at them blankly and then looked at the axe in his hands. As if suddenly understanding, he started in a slow lope towards them. Kohaku glanced over at Rin, who was preoccupying herself with fixing Emiko’s snowy mess. Her hands were shaking. 

The wolf boy stopped short of the group, walking the rest of the way. He held the axe out towards Kiko, handle out, the back of the blade resting against his hand. “Was that your first time chopping wood?” he asked as the girl took it from him.

Kiko visibly bristled and Shippou howled with laughter. Rin tried to shush him, but Emiko echoed the noise, then Sho out of some sort of toddler sense of community.

Kai looked over at them, blinking in confusion and then back at the girl in front of him, who was visibly reddening. “It wasn’t a bad try,” he amended, sensing that he had somehow caused offense. 

Kiko froze then and suddenly brightened, a strange smile on her face. “Ahh, could you tell? I’m not very good at it—could you show me how to do it?”

The wolf youkai blinked, then took the axe back and moved to the chopping block. Wordlessly, he raised the axe over his head and brought it down with a clean swipe. The chunk of wood split easily and he looked over at Kiko, who made a repeating gesture.

“I’m not sure I understand. Could you do it again?”

Kai did this easily enough and then looked back at her.

“Sorry, one more time?”

Several chunks of wood later, Rin leaned over and whispered in Kiko’s ear. “Kiko, do you really not understand how to chop wood?” 

The older girl looked at her with an evil smile. Shippou gaped. 

“No way…to trick someone into doing your chores for you…that’s really mean!”

“You’re just mad you didn’t think of it first,” Kiko whispered.

Shippou nodded after a moment. “It’s genius.”

Kohaku stared at them all for a long while, then returned to collecting the firewood that Kai was chopping. The wolf youkai didn’t seem too bothered to do it and so Kohaku didn’t bother to say anything else. The group fell into a repetition then, Kai chopping, Kohaku collecting, Emiko and Etsuko arguing over the placement of their castle’s spires, Sho eating snow moreso than building with it, Kiko and Rin talking in the low tones of young women, and Shippou trying to figure out how to turn Kiko’s manipulation into a new kitsune trick. 

Before any of them realized it, the sun was beginning to set. Kohaku glanced at the pile of wood before him and rubbed his hands on his clothing. “That should be enough,” he said to Kai, who nodded and lowered the axe. 

“Ahh, you chopped so much!” Kiko cheered, standing up and dusting snowflakes off her kimono.

“That was fun,” he said with a small smile. “If I come over tomorrow, can I do it again?”

Kiko sputtered in shock, not expecting him to have completely overlooked her scam. “Uhh…yeah, I guess…” 

“Great,” the wolf replied, turning on his heels. “I won’t be able to come until after breakfast, that’ll be okay?”

The rest of the group began staring a hole through Kiko’s back, and she could feel it. “Ahh, yes, uhh, that’ll be fine,” she stuttered, watching him nod and start loping again back to the woods.

“Shame on you,” Shippou muttered. “That poor naïve wolf, tricked by a modern girl.”

Kiko glanced over her shoulder, wincing when she saw that they were all looking at her balefully. Even the damn toddler.

“Jeez, jeez, alright!” she grunted after a second, feeling thoroughly punished by the court of peer opinion. “HEY, HEY YOU! WAIT A MINUTE!” she called out, running after him. It was rather amusing to the rest of the group to watch a human try to chase after a youkai, but he heard her before he hit the woodsline and turned on his heels. 

Realizing she wasn’t going to catch back up to him in what he considered reasonable time, Kai ran back, meeting her halfway. Kiko leaned over, catching her breath.

“You…you do realize you were just doing my chores, right? I was just…I was just tricking you.” Kiko averted her gaze downward, shuffling her right foot in the snow. Kagome’s words stung in the back of her head. “ _A girl like you_ ,” her cousin had scolded. “S-sorry,” she added after a thick swallow, her cheeks burning in shame. Kiko was not a child used to apologizing.

Kai stared at her a moment before he tilted his head. The action made him look entirely animal-like. “Oh yeah, of course I knew. Wolf youkai chop wood as a chore too, you know.”

Kiko’s head snapped up. “Huh?! You knew the whole time?!”

He grinned at her and Kiko was suddenly keenly aware of the fangs in his mouth and the inhuman curves of his ears. 

“I guess…we’re not so different, humans and youkai. You do chores and I play tricks,” she said after a moment.

The idea gave Kai some pause and he seemed to turn it over in his head, grin falling. “I’m Kai,” he finally responded.

“Huh?”

“My name is Kai. I realized you must not know. You kept saying ‘hey, you!’ instead of my name.”

Kiko had the decency to look embarrassed. She was probably at a personal record for feeling ashamed of herself in a single day’s time.

“I’ll come back tomorrow to see if Kin has come back from the north,” he continued, not really noticing her reaction. And with that, he was off again, a half-whirlwind of gusting winter wind disappearing into the woods. Kiko shielded her hair and face against the wind.

“I guess you were the one who got played after all,” Shippou noted sagely from where he had been floating above her head in the form of a giant balloon the whole time. Kiko jumped in surprise and then stared up at him in a sudden flash of her temper.

“ _EAVESDROPPER_! THAT’S TWICE IN TWO DAYS!” she shrieked before she began hurling snowballs at him.

“ARGH! STOP THROWING THINGS!!!” he wailed as she chased him back into the village.

_________________________

  

On the other side of the village, Kagome stared down at the letter that had been brought to her by the village leader.

“What…?” she said in shock, re-reading the words again and again.

“ _I will bury your body under the very earth that will then pass to the youkai of the land_ ,” Sango said aloud, frowning. “From Souten? That’s rather severe language from a child.”

“Perhaps she’s being manipulated?” Miroku asked, rubbing his chin. 

“It’s possible,” Sango replied. “But what would the motive be? Souten is not a particularly powerful youkai. Maybe in a few more years, when she’s older, but certainly not now.”

Kagome’s frown deepened. “We should go check it out. Maybe it’s just a temper tantrum. But if she’s sent this to all the villages in the area…” 

Lady Kaede finished the thought. “…the child may be in greater danger than she realizes.”


	9. A Storm Rises

“What the hell happened here?” Inuyasha asked, voice tight. In front of him, the remains of a once-vibrant tengu village lay in ruin.

No, ruin was a word too _gentle_ for what he saw before him. Absolute desolation, destruction of a degree that he had never seen before. 

Kin followed behind him for the first time in the journey, and he understood why. The miasma of this place, oppressive and malevolent, would have been obvious even to an unaware human. The sparse remains of tengu bodies lay strewn across the city, in far worse state than the wolves who had died by Naraku’s incarnations’ hands long before. Many parts of the corpses seemed to be missing among the mess, but far more disturbing was the disparity of the times of death.

“Some of these bodies are more recent than others,” Inuyasha said to Kin, who nodded her grey head in agreement. “How is that possible? If they were massacred when the Shikon no Tama was active…that should have been years ago.”

They followed the village’s main road as it wound around the mountain. Hollowed holes indicated the places that the northern tengu had once called homes, but there was nothing left there to come back to. The remains of paper windows flapped in the same cool wind that made a slow whistle as it scraped along the gouged houses. Each curve yielded more abandoned dwellings, more bodies, a greater stink of doom and death. Inuyasha had resorted to keeping his hand over his nose to drown the odor out.

Kirara, walking along the path slightly ahead of them and coming to another sharp turn along the mountain, suddenly let out a loud cry. The wolf and dog youkai broke into a sprint to catch up with her. As they rounded the corner, they saw what had caused the nekomata such alarm. It alarmed them just as much.

The spire seemed not to have been built over the remains of the tengu’s main hall, but rather had come bursting from within the hall itself. It was nearly 100 feet tall and cloaked in a shade of black so opaque that it made Inuyasha feel unsteady on his feet as he gazed into it. Beside him, both Kirara and Kin were making a mix of whining and growling.

“What the hell is that?” he asked them, not expecting an answer. The three approached the spire cautiously, stepping over broken stones and ripped bodies. The bodies grew fresher as they drew closer.

The moment they were within the remains of the main hall, the cells became visible. Cages crudely mounted with sharp edges and spiked traps, they arranged a circle pattern around the dark pillar. Inside some, there were still bodies, but others were empty, with only dark pools of dried blood underneath to attest to the crimes committed within them.

Inuyasha didn’t have to smell the blood to know it was fresh. “Within the past few months,” he murmured, drawing his eyes back to the black column. “Most of the tengu were dead years ago, but…” he frowned, “…someone…or _something_ tortured the rest of them for the past five years.”

Kin had wandered off to the left and suddenly let out a howl. She had found a set of footprints. No, two sets. 

“One of them walked to this tower,” Inuyasha said aloud, tracing the steps. “And then this body here…it was dragging it behind them…but then the second set…came _out_ of this pillar? The way the body is laying here, leaned up against it…something _ate_ the throat out of the tengu while it was still alive, then walked…walked out of this big thing and joined the other person and…” 

He followed the footprints around the back of the main hall before the sudden drop of the mountainside stopped him. Kirara and Kin trailed after him, but all three of them saw it at the same time. From this height, with much of the land laying below them in a soft bow, how could they not?

A horrific thunderstorm, hundreds of miles away, moving towards and brewing over the direction of their home. 

“Kagome,” Inuyasha gasped.

________________________

 

“You’re going to go _now_?” Kiko asked anxiously, glancing out the window. “But it’s going to storm! Not even a blizzard, an actual proper thunderstorm!”

Kagome paused to smile softly at her cousin as she packed her backpack. “I’m afraid there’s no waiting. An old friend might be in trouble and it’s my job to help where I can.” 

Shippou ran in from the hallway, looking just as restless as the miko. “Sango is ready when you are, Kagome!”

“Okay,” Kagome nodded, standing up and pulling her backpack over her shoulders.

“That doesn’t really match your miko clothing,” Kiko murmured, but there was none of her usual bite to it. Outside, the wind cracked particularly heavily against the walls and from another room, Sho began to cry.

“You help Kohaku and Rin take care of the children,” Kagome ordered, putting her hands on her cousin’s shoulders. “Listen to Kohaku; he’s in charge.”

Kiko didn’t even have it in her to make a joke about how attractive she found powerful leaders. Her brow was furrowed and she glanced out the window again. 

“It’s not even lightning yet,” Kagome said, trying to calm her. “You’ll be just fine. Lady Kaede’s just two houses down, after all.”

Kiko chewed on her lip for a moment as her cousin released her and began gathering her bow and quiver from the corner of the room. “But what about you? Are you going to be okay?”

Kagome turned in surprise to look at her, before breaking into a bright, confident smile. “Of course! I’m the girl who destroyed the Shikon no Tama after all!” 

The younger girl digested this for a moment and then nodded. From the doorway, Shippou nodded vigorously.

“Kagome is really strong! Don’t worry; we’ll be back before you know it!” 

As the three moved into the main room, Sango was waiting for them, already clad in her demon hunting gear. Miroku was giving Emiko and Etsuko directions on how to behave. Kohaku and Rin were sitting across from each other on the floor, watching the rest of the crowd, Sho in Kohaku’s arms.

“Everybody ready?” Kagome asked, surveying her group. Shippou, Sango, and Miroku all nodded, odd looks coming over their faces. To Kohaku and Rin, who were veterans of such affairs, the looks were not so strange. But to Kiko, a child of peace and prosperity, it looked as thought the four of them were going off to war. Kagome smiled again, this time a little firmer around the edges. “Then, let’s go!” 

Kohaku and Rin stood, following after the group as they exited the house. Outside, Shippou transformed into a large raft-like creature, floating low so the rest of the crew could climb aboard. The wind whipped tumultuously around them, causing Rin to grab onto Emiko and Etsuko’s kimono sleeves to hold the little girls upright. 

“Be careful,” Kohaku told his sister, who grinned down at him.

“I’m the _older_ sister, did you forget? I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you. Just keep an eye on the kids for me.”

He nodded, stepping back and tightening his grip on Sho. Rin shuffled the twins closer to him, with Kiko bringing up the rear.

“Don’t look so dour, you all,” Kagome teased as Shippou began to rise into the air. “We’ll be fine.”

The kitsune rose higher and higher, then suddenly took off towards the thunderstorm at a breakneck speed.

“Does anyone else think it’s a bad sign that the storm in the direction of that Souten kid’s castle?” Kiko asked quietly. 

Rin and Kohaku both nodded.

“Just _great_ ,” the older girl breathed, clenching her fists. 

Rin looked over at her and patted her shoulder comfortingly. “It’ll be fine. Let’s get the kids inside and start making some dinner.” Kohaku followed after her, back into the house, stopping short in the doorway. 

“You coming in?” he asked Kiko, who was watching Shippou travel further and further away, until he was nothing more than a dot in the sky.

“Yeah,” she answered, not taking her eyes off the clouds. “In a minute.”

He nodded and went inside.

To say that Kiko felt uneasy would have been an extreme understatement. A week ago, her biggest worry was whether or not her bag and shoes matched or if she was going to be able to pass history class and, god forbid, her high school entrance exams. Now, there were youkai that sometimes wanted to kill people and were sometimes really nice and there was fighting and she was stuck in the middle of _all_ of it. It was a large paradigm shift for such a young girl.

Plus, now her connection to all this madness, her supernaturally-blessed super-cousin, was riding off into a giant thunderstorm that felt—

“—really evil,” Kai said behind her and Kiko nearly jumped out of her skin. 

“MAKE SOME _NOISE_ BEFORE YOU _DO_ THAT, FOR _GODSSAKE_!” she wailed, clutching her chest where her heart pounded fearfully.

“Sorry,” Kai apologized, still staring off at the thunderstorm approaching. “I told you I was coming today. Is there someone flying into that?”

Kiko looked back at the cloud, squinting. She couldn’t see the dot that was Shippou anymore, but Kai was no normal human with normal human vision. “It’s Shippou, Kagome, Sango, and Miroku,” she answered, making a mental note to ask how far he could see at a less turbulent time. “There’s a youkai girl in a castle and they think she’s gotten mixed up with the wrong folks or something.” 

“Wrong folks?” 

“Yeah, I dunno. Yakuza or something, I guess. Is that a thing yet? Maybe not. Kagome promised it wouldn’t be too dangerous, but…” 

“I feel it too,” Kai confirmed. “Inuyasha and Kin aren’t back yet?”

“Nope,” Kiko answered, crossing her arms. 

The wolf youkai stared off into the distance for such a long time that Kiko finally turned and watched him. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Deciding.” 

“Deciding what?”

The youkai’s gaze shot over to her. “No, I decided. I’m going after them.” 

Kiko guffawed. “ _WHAT?!_ ”

“I’m fast enough; I can catch up.”

“That’s not what I—you can’t just—it’s _really_ ominous that way!” 

Kai shrugged. “Kagome used to be Kouga’s woman, so that makes her pack. And she saved us more times than we can count.”

“ _Ehh_?” Kiko gasped. “K-Kouga’s woman??? My cousin was…that kind of girl?” She flushed deeply. “I knew she was a heartbreaker, just like me!” she whispered to herself. 

“Whose heart have you broken?” Kai asked inoffensively, crouching down and stretching his legs.

Kiko narrowed her eyes at him, having no good answer besides: “Mind your own business.”

“Okay,” the wolf replied simply and began to sprint. 

“W-wait!” Kiko shrieked, chasing after him. He stopped short, then watched her as she caught up. “You’re going _alone_?” 

“Well,” Kai said, “ _yeah_. Unless you’re coming with me.”

Kiko snorted. “Into _that_? No way, pal. In case you didn’t notice, I’m a normal human girl.”

“So you’re not coming then?” 

Kiko frowned, sensing the ‘even though your cousin may be in danger’ lurking after his question. Or perhaps that was just her conscience speaking up. “I wouldn’t be able to keep up with you, anyway.” 

“Oh, that’s all?” he asked, no sarcasm whatsoever in his words.

“Well, yeah, that’s the only reason,” Kiko answered, puffing her chest out and putting on an _entirely_ false brave front.

“Okay,” Kai said again, taking her at face value. And then he scooped her up over his shoulder and began to run at top speed. 

“ ** _WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!_** ” the girl shrieked, flailing her legs.

“I’ll just carry you. It’ll be faster that way,” the wolf youkai responded as he rushed into the woods, darting along the dirt path before springing into the trees. “Don’t kick me in the face.” 

Kiko was already getting motion-sick from the angle of her vision, the speed of Kai’s sprinting, and the rough wind whipping against them from the storm. “N-no worries about that,” she gasped, slapping a hand over her mouth. “I might just be sick on you instead.”

 ________________________

  

Inside the Thunder Demon Tribe’s castle, Kyuzetsu and Souten stood side by side, watching from a looking-mirror as one of the masked soldiers cut down four human warriors in a single stroke. Their bodies were piling up outside the gates and had been for a few hours now, as each village with enough bravado to reply to their challenge came marching to their front gate.

“A waste of flesh and bone,” Kyuzetsu murmured. 

Beside him, Souten was trying to keep her eyes on the battle. A strong youkai would not shy away from violence, particularly justifiable violence. That’s what _this_ was, surely. Protecting the future of youkai from the horrid hands of humans. She willed herself to think this again and again, but the words rang hollow in her mind. She was protecting youkai. She was establishing the Thunder Demon Tribe as a protector of those who the humans would exterminate with extreme prejudice.

She was correct, right?

Kyuzetsu held out his hand, but she refused it, stepping off the ornate stool with her own ability. She was no fragile flower needing protection—she was a demon lord in her own right, seeing her first battle to fruition. The two of them turned and headed into the castle proper, where many of the dark soldiers remained in place.

“We haven’t even used most of our force,” Kyuzetsu said, his voice dripping with delight. “So weak are these humans that challenge us.” 

Souten nodded silently.

As they moved down the hall, Kouryuu rounded a corner, flying faster than usual. He spotted Souten and broke into haste.

“Milady,” he began, then looked at Kyuzetsu anxiously. “I would speak with you alone.” 

Souten glanced at the dragon and then up at Kyuzetsu. The tengu smiled blithely and bowed shortly.

“I will return when the next wave of humans arrive,” he said and exited the hall.

Souten waited until he was gone, then pulled Kouryuu into a nearby room, slamming the paper door shut behind her. “What is it, Kouryuu?”

The dragon was nearly panting. “There’s another party coming in.” 

“Another group of human?” Souten snorted, squaring her shoulders. “I don’t care about weak human men.”

“No, Lady Souten,” Kouryuu whispered, glancing at the paper door. “It’s Miss Kagome and her friends.”

Souten froze. 

“Milady?”

“Why—” she began, gritting her fangs. “Why would they come here?”

“Lady Souten,” Kouryuu murmured. “Can you really not guess?”

The young thunder youkai’s brow furrowed deeply and she remained silent for a long while. Kouryuu could very nearly see the gears in her mind spinning.

“Go,” she finally said. “Go get to them before they reach the gates and have to fight…one of those things. Don’t let them get hurt and bring them straight to me.”

Kouryuu nodded, face brightening. “I’ll fly as fast as I can.” 

Souten waved a hand, dismissing him, and the dragon flew from the room, opening the door with a noisy racket. Down the hall he sailed, heading towards a high, open window at the top of the front wall. 

The thunder youkai watched him leave, stepping back out into the hallway. “I hope…” she whispered to herself. “I hope I’m doing the right thing. Kagome will know what is best.”

She didn’t sense the man behind her until he grabbed her up by her kimono’s collar and threw her into a nearby wall. Souten yelped in surprise as she crashed into paper and wood, looking up at the tengu watching her with a dark smile.

“I intended for them to come, of course. There was no doubt they’d heed such a call. But to try and sneak them past me?” Kyuzetsu clucked his tongue. “That was a _regrettable_ error, Lady Souten.”

“What—” Souten growled, rising to her feet. “You bastard, what are you—” 

“I’m not done with you yet, of course,” Kyuzetsu said, closing in on her. “So I can’t just kill you. But I _do_ need you out of the way for what comes next.” 

Souten opened her mouth to scream, hands crackling with her young thunder, but the darkness took her too quickly for either effort to succeed.


	10. Arrival/Departure

The storm was growing in magnitude with every passing minute. By the time Kohaku and Rin realized that Kiko was gone, it was already too tumultuous to leave the village. Emiko and Etsuko clung to their ankles, shivering in fear as the thunder began to roll and rumble through the sky.

“I’ve got to go,” Kohaku said for the fourth time, staring out the window. “Kagome and Sango put me in charge.”

“You _can’t_ ,” Rin replied quickly, grabbing his arms. “It’s too dangerous!”

“DANGEROUS!” Emiko squealed, tucked in between them in terror. “DON’T LEAVE, UNCLE KOHAKU!!!”

The teen looked down at his niece. Her tiny fingers were clutching his leg, tiny fingernails scratching at his skin. She gazed up at him, eyes wide and terror-filled.

“ _Please_ , Uncle Kohaku,” Etsuko pleaded, grasping Rin’s kimono hem in her own small hands.

He scrunched up his face, staring back out the window. The wind was picking up, dragging anything unsecured along the ground. Without Kirara or Shippou for transport, what was he supposed to do? If only he had come out when he first noticed there was a youkai outside. Maybe it had been Kai, but maybe…

He made a loud, frustrated noise and looked at Rin. “We have to get to the center of the house in case the wind gets worse,” he said in a half-command.

The younger girl moved, needing no further instructions, and scooped Sho off the floor. “Come on, girls,” she said, voice level. “Let’s go play games in Shippou’s room.”

Kohaku’s shoulder tensed when the twins immediately chased after her, tempted enough by the offer of gaining entry into Shippou’s toy-filled room to temporarily forget their fear. He waited until all four of them entered the room, then sat about closing every window and door in the house. Many of them he was able to latch, but those that he couldn’t, he leveraged heavier furniture against. He moved from room to room, sliding paper doors shut with loud slaps and praying that the wind didn’t pick up more.

The final door, in the back of the house, was all that lay before him when the buzzing in his head resumed again. It started off soft and he quickened his pace. But it quickly grew and Kohaku found himself sprinting towards the door, unlatching his hook and chain from behind his belt. Whatever it was, it was coming straight for the back door. He nearly slammed into the wall with the sheer force of his speed and reached over to push the door closed before it reached.

A pair of well-kept claws grabbed the door from the other end. Kohaku’s instincts kicked in and he flung the hook straight through the paper door. On the other end, there was a loud screech. 

Jaken came flying through the open door. “IMPERTINENT BRAT!” he screeched, clothing disheveled from the wind. 

Kohaku gaped, then looked through the hole in the paper door, seeing Sesshoumaru on the other side, holding his hook in his free hand.

“You could’ve harmed Lord Sesshoumaru!” the imp continued, stomping his foot and Nintoujou on the ground. “Careless human boy! Learn some self-control before you go around throwing adults’ weapons!” 

Kohaku dropped the chain, doing a half-bow as Sesshoumaru dropped the hook on the other side of the door and proceeded to walk through the entryway. The dog lord did not tread any further though. Behind him, the wind blew ever fiercely.

“Jaken,” Sesshoumaru murmured, not bothering to even look at his servant. Jaken understood that look and immediately backtracked.

“Not that your puny weapon could have hurt the great Lord Sesshoumaru! You could not harm him even if he were severely injured or poisoned or ensnared in some great trap!”

Kohaku bit the inside of his cheek. “My apologies, Lord Sesshoumaru,” he said quickly, bowing again. 

“This place stinks of my brother,” Sesshoumaru said calmly, looking around the back room, which served as the kitchen.

Neither Jaken nor Kohaku responded, both staring at Sesshoumaru as he surveyed the room and then turned back around towards the storm. 

“Rin will stay inside this dwelling,” he said calmly, looking out at the storm. 

“Yes,” Kohaku confirmed, knowing that this was actually a command.

“It is unsafe for humans to be out in such weather,” Jaken explained, shaking his staff. “There is something very wicked happening in the Raimei Valley.” 

“My sister, brother-in-law, and Kagome are heading there now,” Kohaku said to the two youkai.

Sesshoumaru turned his head, almost imperceptibly. The question was there, on his mind, but he would never bring himself to say such words. 

“Inuyasha hasn’t come back from the north yet,” Kohaku said after a long moment, so as to not seem like he was answering the question that Sesshoumaru most certainly did not ask. 

Jaken snorted and began to say something critical of the hanyou, but Sesshoumaru cut him off. 

“Rin does not leave,” he said again and then exited the house. He took several steps outside, the wind whipping his hair and tail about furiously, then suddenly leapt up. A small noise on the roof confirmed that he had landed there.

Jaken stared after him. “It is an _awful_ storm,” he muttered to himself. Kohaku could nearly feel the imp’s anxiety at having to sit through it. But nonetheless, out the door the servant went, following his master up onto the roof.

“Kohaku, where are you?” Rin called from the central room. 

“I’m coming!” Kohaku yelled back, slamming the back door shut and pushing a large cooking pot in front of it. It wouldn’t hold if the wind came full-force at the house, but if Sesshoumaru failed to protect them from whatever was coming, no other protection would matter.

________________________

 

“Do you see anything?” Kagome asked Shippou, peering down over her place on his transformed into his face. They were coming into the valley now, and the castle loomed in front of them. The storm clouds emanating from it were growing in number and ferocity, and the group had spent most of their time clutching Shippou tightly to keep from being knocked off by the winds.

“There are lot of humans down at the bottom,” Shippou answered, squinting. “They’re…fighting.” His tone suddenly darkened. “Kagome, I think they’re being _massacred_.”

Kagome paled and looked to Sango and Miroku, who were mirroring her expression.

“These storm clouds are coming from the top of the castle,” Miroku noted after a long period of silence. “That’s where we need to head.”

“We should split up,” Sango added. “Someone has to stop whatever is attacking the humans.”

Kagome nodded. “Can you two take care of that? Shippou and I can try to find Souten inside and figure out what’s going on.”

The married couple clustered together in preparation as Shippou drew closer to the fortress. Down below, the devastation of the battle became evident. Human bodies lay strewn across the castle grounds, flanked by dark figures that seemed to stop moving until attacked by another warrior. 

“I’ll drop you off at the gate, as close as I can,” the kitsune called out.

“We’re used to bumpier landings than this, aren’t we?” Miroku joked, looking down at the dark beings they would have to fight. 

“Of course we are!” Sango smirked. “Only, you better hold onto me. We know who’s the better fighter in this family.” 

Miroku put his hands up in surrender. “I make no claims to that title,” he laughed, although Kagome noticed how they gripped each other’s hand. She suddenly wished Inuyasha were there as well, charging into battle with them and clutching her hand like that to allay her fears.

“One,” Shippou counted, dropping suddenly. “Two…”

The dark figures all looked up at once. 

“Noh masks,” Miroku murmured, just as Shippou yelled, “THREE!” and shrunk dramatically in size. The demon hunter and monk fell straight down, while Kagome clung to Shippou’s smaller form as it soared into a third-story window.

Miroku and Sango rolled across the ground, landing on their feet if a little ungracefully. 

“We’re getting _old_ ,” he chuckled, dusting himself off. 

“Speak for yourself,” Sango retorted as she swung her hiraikotsu around slowly. “ _You’re_ the older husband; I’m the youthful wife.”

Around them, human bodies lay in waste. Off to the front of the castle, more humans were trying to storm the gates, struggling to overcome the shadows that ripped them to pieces in what seemed like minimal movements.

“Youkai?” Miroku asked as one of the figures turned and seemed to regard them, half a torso hanging from its mask.

“Not sure yet,” Sango answered. “Let’s tear one apart and figure that out.” 

____________________

 

“Don’t move,” Junko ordered, standing over Souta as the doctor examined his arm. Hitomaru was standing over the both of them, towering over everyone else in the room.

“Let me just see this,” the doctor promised as he took Souta’s arm out of its sling and began to peel the hardened cast as if it were made of paper. “A transverse fracture of the lower humerus. Any pain, son?” 

Souta shook his head. “Nothing too bad, but I just got out of the hospital a few hours ago.”

  
“Ahh,” the doctor nodded. “So you’re still on your initial medication. That’s good; that’ll save us the trouble of medicating you for the correction.”

“C-correction?” Souta asked, fear rising in his throat.

“Don’t worry,” the doctor chirped cheerfully, using one of his six arms to reach over and pick up a large ceramic pot. “It won’t hurt.” He unscrewed the top of the jar and a pungent, herbal odor overtook the room. “Not much, at least.” 

“I can’t watch,” Hitomaru said in an oddly cheerful voice. “I have a phobia of medical procedures.” 

“Just don’t pay attention,” Junko added. “You know how you would get shots as a kid and they’d distract you?”

“Yeah?” Souta replied hopefully.

Junko punched him in the gut at the exact moment as the doctor’s mouth unhinged and slid around Souta’s arm.

There was thick cracking sound and Souta screamed. The youkai doctor’s teeth did not sink in, however, but the crack certainly came from his arm, and oh _god_ — 

“I’m going to be sick,” Souta slurred just before he rolled over on the table and vomited onto the floor.

“Well,” Junko said in disgust as the doctor’s mouth slid off Souta’s arm. “I guess that’s to be expected after the day he’s had.” 

“Nurse! We need a clean up in examination room three!” the doctor called down the hallway. A bat youkai came running in with cleaning supplies.

“Hey, Souta,” Hitomaru said comfortingly. “Does your arm feel better?” 

The human boy looked up at the oni. “Huh?” he slurred and suddenly realized he was gripping the end of the hospital bed with _both_ of his hands. His eyes traveled up his just-broke arm, but the deep bruising and injuries were gone. His arm looked just as it had before he landed at the bottom of the Bone Eater’s Well.

“How—?”

The doctor was now rubbing the ointment around his mouth. It was a little horrifying to watch, but Souta did it nonetheless. “I’m a youkai whose mouth heals, not kills. It’s the perfect gift for a doctor, don’t you think?” 

Junko smirked, crossing her arms. “See? I told you I’d distract you and you wouldn’t even notice.”

“Gee, _thanks_ ,” Souta grumbled, rising up and sliding off the hospital bed onto the floor.

The three teens exited the hospital a little while later and Junko looked around the wide street in front of them. Souta was still dealing with a little shock each time he saw a bakeneko taking a selfie or a salamander youkai handing out shop flyers.

“Okay, that’s one thing down,” the demon hunter said, making a checking motion with her finger. “Now, to get you to Chuuro. Where’s the best place to start?”

“We can see if anyone in the parliament building has seen him lately?” Hitomaru offered. “They usually keep track of the movements of gods.”

“Parliament?” Souta asked.

The oni nodded. “We have a two-branch parliament to help with the regulation of Seimei City. One branch houses the inheritors. They’re daiyoukai and tribal leaders, people that usually inherit their positions from birth or through rituals. But then we have the elected, who are chosen by the voters. No youkai can serve on both committees, so there’s a good mix of voice there when we have to decide on tough matters.” 

“Hitomaru wants to join the Youkai Parliament,” Junko said boredly, beginning to walk down the street. “In case you can’t tell.” 

“It’s a goal of mine,” the large teen agreed. “I’d like to really help the community here in Seimei City. I have a lot of good ideas, but I’m not the best public speaker…”

Junko snorted and began walking down the street. “We’ll have to take the subway from here to get to the parliamentary district.”

“You guys have a subway?!” Souta’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

“Only five stops,” Hitomaru admitted sheepishly as he followed Junko. 

“Five stops,” Souta whispered to himself in amazement.

“Don’t fall behind, kid,” Junko ordered, looking at him as she descended the escalator into the subway station. “If you get lost, I’m considering my agreement to take you to Chuuro null and void and I’m going home to watch some TV.”

______________________

 

Kai smelled the dead bodies long before he saw them. He shifted left and the sudden change in trajectory made Kiko jump and try to look over her shoulder at him.

“What’s going on?! Is something happening?”

“No,” Kai lied. “That way’s just blocked.”

The girl thrown over his shoulder returned to silence, perhaps willing herself not to spew her guts everywhere. He wasn’t sure, but it was a safe bet to assume that Kiko had never seen a dead body, much less one that was ripped apart as badly as the ones in front of them were. He could smell the stink of guts as if they were inches away from his face. She had put on a brave face, but he knew that was mostly a show and he certainly knew what it was like to see your first dead body. He’d spare her the horror if he could. 

The castle appeared to their right and sounds of fighting became audible in the distance. There was no one on this side, surprisingly, and Kai was trying to figure out why that was when— 

“MOAT!!” Kiko shrieked as they suddenly fall into the large carved-out portion between the castle and the forest.

“Got it,” Kai grunted, catching his feet on the side of the descending wall and springing himself across to the other side. He managed to catch the ledge with his claws, Kiko making a muffled squeal as the impact threw her safely over onto the rocky area beside the castle. “You okay?” he asked, pulling himself up with each.

Rear over head, Kiko sputtered and rolled onto her side, then crawled up. “No more of _that_ ,” she commanded, wobbling to her feet. “I’m walking from here on out.”

“Okay,” Kai agreed as he began to survey the back of the castle. It was mostly sparse, but there were windows scattered across. “I can make it to that one and then lift you up.”

“We’re going _into_ the terrible castle of death?” Kiko gaped.

Kai stared at her for a moment. “Fine!” she grunted and the wolf boy was off, charging at the castle wall, then running up its smooth surface and catching the window ledge easily. He crawled into the room, looking around for signs of activity and finding none, leaned back out the window, holding his arms out for Kiko to grab onto.

It took her three good running tries, but she caught his fingers on the last go, and he pulled her into the room with him.

“Woah,” she whispered as she surveyed the room around her. “Someone is _loaded_.” 

“Stay behind me,” Kai replied, in that way he had of replying to completely different things than what had actually been said, and moved through the large room towards the dimly lit hallway. He peeked around both corners of the doorframe and then crept out into the hall, Kiko close on his tail. 

To be precise, she had grabbed the two tendrils of his furs that resembled tails and was clutching them for dear life. 

“Someone’s up on the floor above us,” Kai whispered, looking up. “And I think I hear Sango and Miroku downstairs, outside the castle.”

“You can hear that we— _woah_ ,” Kiko stopped mid-step as they passed a large room with an open door. “Do you see that?”

Kai glanced in. “It’s a lot of gold and stuff.” He didn’t sound too impressed.

“ _Treasure_ ,” Kiko gasped under her breath. “Squalor no more.” She released Kai’s furs and crept into the room. “Let me just check this out for a second.” 

Kai, sensing some usual human avarice, sighed and began examining the rest of the corridor for the best path upstairs. There were what looked like stairs to the left, but there was a horrible stench coming from them. It was still far away, but Kai didn’t want to find out what it was by getting any closer. 

Kiko, preoccupied with draping herself in golden necklaces and pearl jewelry, paid no mind. She wandered around the room, gathering things into her arms at pure random. The treasure of the Thunder Demon Tribe was stacked nearly ceiling-high, and she made her way around the small footpaths that someone had carved long before her. A large golden scepter hung on one wall, gleaming with a gigantic ruby.

“Hey Kai,” she whispered, realizing she couldn’t see the young youkai anymore. “Come check _this_ out.” She reached out, grabbing the scepter and giving it a tug. It failed to move. “Come on, baby, come to mama,” she murmured, giving it an even harder pull. The scepter shifted suddenly, as did the ground underneath it. The ground where Kiko was standing.

“ _Ahh_ —” she started to say as the trapdoor gave way and she tumbled down, the sound dying in her throat before it grow any louder. The flap snapped shut behind her, blackening her fall the entire way down. 

“Kiko,” Kai called out quietly from the doorway, “Kiko, I think I found a—Kiko? Kiko, where did you go?” The wolf ran the room over once, then twice. Her smell lingered on everything she touched, but his nose couldn’t figure out exactly what had happened. He went back out to the doorway, trying to see if she had left that way, but there was nothing.

He turned around, staring back into the treasure room, utterly confused and completely unsure of what to do next. 

______________________

 

Kouryuu had found Kagome and Shippou as soon as they entered the castle, following them back indoors after their landing.

  
“Miss Kagome!” he gasped, nearly flying into her arms. “Miss Kagome!” 

“Kouryuu!” the young woman said, pulling the small dragon towards her. “Kouryuu, what is going on?!”

Shippou piped up. “And where’s Souten?!”

“Here in the castle,” Kouryuu panted. “But there’s someone else here too. He came about a week ago, talking about rebuilding the glory of Souten’s family, and then he brought these…these monsters.”

“Did he send out those letters?” Kagome asked.

Kouryuu frowned. “My lady wrote them, but I believe most of the words were his, not hers. You must understand, Lady Souten is young and I don’t…I don’t believe she realized what would happen—even I could not predicted everything would take this path.” 

“Is Souten at the top of the castle? Causing the storms?” Shippou asked. 

The dragon shook his head. “That cannot be possible. Lady Souten is a great youkai lord, but that amount of power is still beyond her ability. She may be up there, with Kyuzetsu.  We rarely visit that level, as it was unfinished after her brothers' deaths.”

“Kyuzetsu?” Kagome repeated. 

Kouryuu nodded. “The tengu who caused all this. He came from the north and made all these promises, tricking her with ideas about pride and honor and—”

“Wait,” Kagome interrupted, “did you just say a northern tengu is in the castle?”

“Yes,” Kouryuu confirmed. “Why? What does that mean?”

Kagome grimaced, staring at the path before them deeper into the castle. Fog began to appear at the edges of doorframes and windows, obscuring their vision. “That means that this is a lot worse than I realized.”


	11. A Din From Above

The secretary at the front desk of the Seimei City Parliamentary Building ogled the three teens with all six of her round eyes. Junko and Hitomaru clearly didn’t seem out of place, but she seemed to stare at Souta for a little while longer. Aiming for the best politeness he could muster, he tried to decide which pair of eyes was the best to maintain eye contact with. Junko dug her elbow into his side and whispered under her breath, “ _bottom set._ ” He nodded almost imperceptibly and refocused his gaze.

“The kami registration is on the fourth floor, sixth room to your left if you use those elevators—” she motioned with one long, furry claw, “—over there. It’s between the DMV room and the Declaration of Mystic Artifacts archive.” 

“Fourth floor, sixth room to the left,” Hitomaru repeated, smiling brightly at her. “Thank you very much, _Miss_.” 

The secretary, very near elderly in age, pinkened and chortled. Junko turned first, grabbing Souta by the elbow and dragging him with her, and Hitomaru brought up the rear as they moved towards the elevators. There was a queue in place, but the elevators were quick and spacious, and soon enough they boarded. 

“Hito,” Junko muttered, smushed between two spirits that resembled overgrown carrot people in pressed three-piece suits, “press the fourth button, would’ya?”

The oni, towering over every one in the elevator, did so with ease. Souta, pinned between him and the wall, felt his head become the larger teen’s armrest.

“Sorry, Souta,” Hitomaru apologized. “It’s a little cramped in here.”

“No _shit_ , Sherlock,” Junko grunted, glaring daggers at the giant carrots as they exited on the second floor. Most of the rest of the elevator’s crowd exited on the third, and the teens filed out behind them when the elevator dinged for the fourth floor. There were signs every which way, indicating rooms for licenses for exorcisms, licenses for possessions, building permits, drug courts, traffic courts, and every other imaginable topic. Each door was decorated in a completely different style, making the entire hallway, painted in red, seem even more like something from a fun house. Junko counted the doors as they walked. 

“There’s the DMV, and that’s five…” she looked at the next door, which was incredibly ornate compared to those around it. Hand-carved wood, stained precisely in various shades of cherry and dark brown, depicted various scenes from Japanese mythology—Momotarou climbing out of the peach, Susanoo slaying Yamata no Orochi, the hare of Inaba pleading with Ookuninushi and his brothers for help, Izanagi casting down the boulder that trapped his decaying wife, Izanami, in the underworld. Souta examined each one in awe, reaching up to trace the images with his fingers. 

“Are you done?” Junko grunted, before pushing the door open and entering the room first. Hitomaru trotted after her, dunking low to avoid hitting his head, and Souta brought up the rear. 

The room was far larger on the inside than it appeared from the outside. In fact, it was _impossible_ for the room they had seen outside to lead to this massive area. Souta recognized it as an enchantment, but it still amazed him. From corner to corner, stacked tomes and scrolls littered the room, piling forty or so feet high. They seemed precariously placed and Junko navigated carefully through the stacks. Hitomaru took even more care, pinning his arms to his side to try and and thin the bulk of his figure out as much as possible. 

At the end of the short path, an empty space opened up. All the stacks surrounded this space in a circular manner, and a single desk, twenty feet high, with a single chair, similarly tall, sat in the middle of the room. In the chair sat an ancient, shivering woman with gray hair. She was dressed in the elaborate kimono of a mature, married woman, with a small pair of reading glasses on the bridge of her nose. The scroll that she was reading seemed far more interesting than the three people in front of her, so she did not raise her eyes to regard them.

Hitomaru coughed politely. No reply. 

“Oi, bookkeeper,” Junko grumbled, putting her hands on her hips. “We need to know where the God of Passages is.”

The woman paused in her reading and pushed her glasses up on her nose as she looked up. She observed the three of them carefully now. 

“Chuuro, God of Passages?” she repeated, her voice as shaky as her body.

“Yeah, do you know where he lives now?” Junko asked. 

The old woman shook her head slowly, although it bobbed with the effort. “You will not find Chuuro at his home,” she answered. “You will find him in the great gameroom.” 

“The gameroom?” Junko scoffed incredulously. “There’s a kami in the town _casino_?”

________________________

  

Any progress that had been made in the healing of her few broken ribs was already half-undone by the time Kai had carried her to the Raimei Valley, but the fall had nearly finished the job. Kiko thankfully didn’t hit anything on the way down, although she ended up rolling into what felt like a wet pile of seaweed as she crashed down into the darkness below the castle’s main floors. Spitting out a mouthful of stinking plant matter, she squinted against the dark, trying to force her eyes to adjust to the sudden change quicker. She looked up at the direction that she had fallen, but there was no light up there either.”

“Crap,” she wheezed, sitting up and rubbing her aching ribs. She fell back on her rear and worked on catching her breath. “Crap, crap, _crapcrapcrap_ …”

There was a thin layer of water where she sat, coating the seaweed-like material and splashing as she moved around. It was not quite putrid, but it wasn’t the best smell in the world. 

“Okay, Kiko, ol’ girl, this could be way worse,” she muttered to herself as she realized that there would be no light to adjust her eyes too. Complete blindness. Just _great_. She waited in the darkness, hoping to hear voices in search of her. Nothing.

“Oh, who am I kidding?!” she whined, kicking her feet in the shallow water. “I’m going to die here in some dingy old—old, unfininshed basement because I am just a big, greedy idiot!” She threw her head back and groaned loudly, slapping the water with flat hands in a half-tantrum. “Idiot, idiot, _idiot_!!!”

Kiko rolled over onto her side in the water, holding onto her ribs as she did so. “There’s no way I can get out of this mess,” she grumbled dramatically as she closed her eyes.

A few moments later, she recanted that thought. “No, you know what? You know what? I’m going to find my way out of this and I’m going to march up to everyone and be like, look, I’m just as good as all of you at staying alive and doing…stuff.” She tried to stand and find a wall, but there was nothing to be found near her, and she fell back onto the ground, rolling back onto her side in misery.

“Fine, I’ll just lay here and _die_ ,” she whispered spitefully.

And a few moments after that, hands folded in prayer and sitting back up: “Dear God, I don’t if you’re listening or not, but hey, I found out that youkai are real, so maybe you are too? If you _are_ real, could you maybe help me out of this? I promise I’ll be on my very best behavior. And while you’re at it, if you could maybe get me out of this entire ‘time-travel’ business, I’d be really gr—”

A sudden clap of thunder in the dark chasm made her nearly jump out of her skin. Off in the distance, there was a faint light of what looked like lightning and then another clap of thunder. A little closer this time, and then closer the third time it happened.

“Oh _crap_ ,” Kiko said softly and began crawling away from the commotion on all fours. “Stay low, stay low,” she whispered to herself as she searched in vain for some sort of structure to hide behind.

“WHO’S THERE?” a voice boomed from the distance. Kiko shrieked and crawled even faster, nearly crashing into what felt like a small boulder in the middle of her path. Not hesitating, she jumped behind it and slapped her hands over her mouth.

The lightning and thunder combination came closer and closer, the loud voice accompanying it as well. “SHOW YOURSELF!” it declared after a particularly nasty clap of thunder. 

Kiko made a promise to herself to do exactly the _opposite_ of that.

Closer and closer the other person in the underground came, and the lightning began to illuminate the room better. Kiko could make out a surrounding wall far off, with a single path cutting across it. On one side, the figure had entered, and the path extended to the other side.

‘ _An exit?_ ’ she thought, not allowing herself to peek over the rock and see how close the figure was now. 

“Maybe I was just hearing things,” the voice murmured to itself, and Kiko took that as a sign. When lightning flashed next, she took off like a bolt of lightning herself, rushing right at the path in the wall. She didn’t even turn around, pushing her legs harder than they’d ever been pushed before.

“HEY!” the voice bellowed. “COME BACK HERE, YOU!!!” 

Kiko meant to make some smart comeback, but terror kept any coherent words from reaching her mouth, so she instead made a sort of leaking screech as she ran into the path and began following its twisting curves. 

It was only because of the lightning crashing behind her that she could see, but that also meant that the figure was chasing her, and—

The panicked noise escaping her throat increased in volume. The figure was drawing closer, she realized, as the thunder rumbled louder and louder. It was going to catch up to her, she realized in horror, feeling fire in her ribs and fear deep in her heart. She was going to die here in this dark cavern, eaten alive by some sort of demon, never to be seen again in any era, modern or feudal.

A hand scraped her upper thigh, the figure almost catching a hold of her, and she full-on screamed as she stumbled and rolled down a small decline in the path. The figure seemed to fall too, as she heard a loud “OOMPH” seconds before something came crashing into her at the bottom of the decline.

Something very _small_.

The lightning paused temporarily as the figure struggled to get untangled from Kiko’s legs. The teen reached out, patting blindly along the outline of the figure.

“You’re—you’re—” she sputtered. A new crack of lightning illuminated the two girls as they stared at each other. “ _YOU’RE A FREAKING LITTLE KID!!!_ ” 

“No, I’m not!” the young girl snarled, showing off youkai incisors as she jumped to her feet. “I’m Lord Souten of the Thunder Demon Tribe! Who are you, trespasser?!” 

“I’m Kiko,” the teenager replied in annoyance. “Jeez, I was sitting here all terrified of you and running for my freaking life, and you’re just—wait, did you say _Souten_?” 

The young youkai glared at her. “Lord Souten to you, human!”

Kiko frowned. “ _You’re_ the reason we’re all in this—this _mess_!” she accused, poking the child in the chest with her finger. “What did you _do_?”

Souten recoiled a little, frown growing uncertain. “ _We_? Are you…are you with Kagome and Shippou?”

Kiko raised herself to her full height. “Yep, I’m part of the rescue party,” she half-lied, justifying it to herself that Kai had come to help rescue Souten and protect Kagome and she had come with Kai, ergo— “I’m Kagome’s cousin,” she added for extra acclaim. 

Souten’s eyes grew a little bigger and then suddenly turned watery. “I’m…afraid for Kagome and Shippou. There’s someone in my castle and he’s—he lied to me and then I let him…I let him start a war, and now he’s built something up on the roof and I—” She broke in tears, turning so Kiko couldn’t see her do so. Slowly, the child curled up onto herself, squatting on the ground. “I tried to stand up to him and he threw me down here into the dungeon and I’ve been trying to get out—how did you find me?”

Kiko made a little hiccup noise. “Err, it was a hunch…yeah, I had a hunch that I should check down here.” ‘ _Good job, Kiko,_ ’ she thought to herself nervously, ‘ _better not tell the youkai that you were messing around in her treasure._ ’

“Ahh,” Souten said, looking over at her with a small sliver of hope gleaming on her face. “So you’re gifted like Kagome!” 

“Err,” Kiko muttered, scratching her cheek. “I guess you could say so…”

“Good!” Souten said and rose back onto her feet. She scrubbed the tears off her cheeks and rubbed her eyes vigorously. “Let’s find the way back upstairs together and help Kagome finish off that stupid tengu! I’m in the mood for a war!” The child began walking with a certain amount of purpose, the lightning flashing around her and thunder following. Realizing that the human teen was not following her, Souten looked back over her shoulder. “Aren’t you coming?”

Kiko stood up and laughed nervously. “Ahh yes, I’m coming,” she said, face falling as soon as Souten turned back around and began marching down the path. ‘ _How do I get myself into these kinds of messes?_ ’ she thought miserably. 

_____________________

 

“They’re not staying dead!” Sango yelled over the din towards her husband. He caught a blow from one of the shadowy monsters with his staff, struggling against its strength as the noh mask leaned down, entirely too close to his face.

“Yes,” he grunted through gritted teeth. “I _noticed_.” With a shove of spiritual energy and three talismans, he managed to push the monster back, but it did not react as most youkai did to the blessed papers. Pausing in its attack, the noh mask turned downward and it stared at the talisman. It was burning through the dark flesh, certainly, but there was no blood or flesh being exposed. Suddenly, it ripped the ward off its chest and crumpled it in its hand. “And I can’t seem to fully exorcise them, either.”

Sango swung her boomerang in a wide arc, sending it flying at a line of the murky fiends. It tore through their bodies entirely, leaving them in pieces on the ground, but only moments later, they were reforming themselves, the halves crawling back to each other and sealing shut. “Well, we need to think of something soon,” she panted, glancing at the waste around them. “We’re not going to last much longer unless something gives.”

Miroku yelled his agreement, slamming his staff into the stomach of one of the beings. It recoiled, then doubled over and crashed into him with equal force, sending him toppling to the ground. As it descended on him to finish the job, he managed to catch its claws with the long end of his staff, and against each other they struggled. 

“Miroku!” Sango screamed before two of the shadows moved into her path, separating her from her husband. 

“I’m…fine…” Miroku struggled as he pushed forward, trying to get the being off him. It was a no-go, as the dark creature managed to shove him back onto the ground. Taking a chance, he slackened on one end of the staff and rolled slightly, allowing the weight of the monster to fall off-balance as he brought the other end of the staff up and cracked it against the noh mask.

A sharp crack shattered across the figure’s mask and it recoiled in instant shock. Miroku scrambled to his feet and held his staff up to keep it at a distance.

“The masks!” Sango realized as she slammed her boomerang into the two creatures attacking her. She pulled the large, carved bone back and then whipped around, knocking its wide end into one of the beings’ masks. The unpainted face shattered into pieces and the dark shadow around it went rigid and then melted into the dirt. Without hesitating, she dropped down, avoiding an approaching claw from the remaining foe, and swung up, catching her hand in the space underneath the end of its mask. She jerked, throwing her arm over, ripping the mask straight off the shape and sending it crashing onto the ground. This creature, too, fell down and then into the ground.

Miroku followed suit, catching the half-cracked mask of his attacker with one end of his staff and breaking it completely in one swift burst of force.

The couple rushed towards each other, but did not embrace. Instead, they turned at the last second, slamming their backs together as they surveyed the remaining enemies.

Miroku glanced over his shoulder at his wife, who was grinning as she panted. “That’s a look I haven’t seen in a while,” he observed.

“Once a hunter, always a hunter,” Sango replied with a laugh, pulling her boomerang into position. “Let’s see how long this takes now that we have the advantage.”

_______________________

 

Atop the castle, the pillar stood tall, stretching high up into the stormclouds. Kyuzetsu’s eyes followed its height, his lips curving into a smile as he gazed into the swirling tempest. Behind him, a cloaked figure stood, half-slumped and breathing visibly even through its dark shroud.

“Just a few moments longer,” the tengu said to the figure without turning to look at it. He was still smiling at the sky. “It’s such a shame you’re not much for conversation.” The wind was tumultuous, twisting his clothing around him in sharp jags, but Kagome’s aim was still true, and the arrow she launched from her bow came flying at the back of his head.

The youkai turned at the last possible moment, snatching the arrow out of midair with his bare hands. “So glad you could make it, Kagome Higurashi. Destroyer of the Shikon no Tama.” 

Kagome frowned, docking another arrow, and Shippou made a brave show of putting himself between the tengu and his friend. “Where’s Souten?” she asked, gaze darting to the figure beside him. “What did you do to her?”

Kyuzetsu grinned blithely as the arrow began to burn through his fingertips and dropped it, grinding its length into the ground with his shoe. “Your famous blessed arrows. Not good for someone like me to hold too long, eh? Don’t worry; the little Thunder Lady is simply being kept safe until she’s needed. You see, we’re about to have a very _special_ guest, and he’s…” the tengu chuckled. “Well, he’s going to be _hungry_ , certainly.”

“You bastard!” Shippou growled, foxfire sparking at his fingertips and crashing towards the tengu. Kagome brought her bow up in an instant, sending another arrow flying at Kyuzetsu. Kouryuu’s form was shifting into something much, _much_ larger and he charged behind Kagome’s arrow, opening his mouth in a loud roar.

“Such violence,” Kyuzetsu sighed. His wings unfurled from underneath his cloak and flapped powerfully, sending the foxfire off to either side of him with a heavy gust of wind. Kagome’s arrow managed to catch him in the shoulder, but he snapped it off even as it burned his flesh and ripped the pieces. “Trying to kill the messenger, are we?” he smirked as a powerful bolt of lightning crashed in front of Kouryuu, sending the dragon recoiling. “Unfortunately, that won’t do you much good at this point.”

“Yeah? And why’s that?” Kagome growled, notching another arrow, the tip glowing powerfully with her energy.

“Because,” Kyuzetsu said, looking up as lightning struck the pillar from all sides. “The summoning has already begun.”  


	12. Before the Thunder, the Lightning

It was nearly nightfall in the middle of winter, but the crackling lightning surrounding the pillar made it brighter than a summer day. Shippou squinted his eyes against the visual assault of this new light and looked to Kouryuu, who had transformed back into his smaller form after nearly being struck by a bolt of lightning. The kitsune ran to his side, checking him over for serious injuries. 

“I’ve…got thick dragon skin,” Kouryuu answered slowly, shaking the haze out of his brain. “I’ll be fine.”

Kyuzetsu hovered in place, several feet up in the air, with his massive, black wings keeping him in air. Below him, the hooded figure remained still.

Kagome drew another arrow out of her quiver and quickly docked it onto her bow. “Shippou, we have to take down that column!” she shouted over the loud roar of thunder around them. Her hair whipped around her head and she looked unsteady on her feet in the heavy winds, but her expression stayed confident, if not also cautious. She briefly closed one eye, measuring the distance between herself and the pillar, then opened both eyes, took aim, and let her arrow fly.

Kyuzetsu blew it away with a gust of his wings and Kagome grinned victoriously. 

“He’s trying to keep us from attacking it,” she yelled to her companions. “Which means it’s _able_ to be attacked!” 

Shippou opened his mouth to respond but a crack of thunder drew all their attention upwards. Lightning was crackling across the clouds, almost as though it had intention. Shippou looked over at Kagome, who was staring upwards. Her hair was beginning to rise off her head in tiny, electrified wisps. 

“ ** _KAGOME!!!_** ” he screamed as the bolt of lightning struck her head-on.

________________________

 

“ _That’s_ the exit?” Kiko asked, exasperated. She and Souten had finally reached the end of the dark path, but the exit still alluded them—suspended high up on the flat wall that made the perimeter of the dungeon, the doorway would be a steep climb by any being that couldn’t fly. “Please tell me you can turn into a balloon or a bird or a plane or something.”

Souten frowned up at the older girl. “Well, of course not! I’m a thunder youkai!”

“Yes, I heard you the first time,” Kiko grumbled, looking back up at the exit. She added quietly to herself, “and the _second_ , and the _third_ , and the _fourth_ times, too.” Sighing, she glanced down at the youkai child. “Any ideas for how we can get up there?” 

Souten shook her head. “Not at the moment. My ancestors would not have made the exit easy since this is supposed to be where we put our prisoners of war when we weren’t torturing them.” 

“ _Great_ ,” Kiko breathed. Any idea that entered her mind was instantly useless—there were no loose rocks that could be stacked up, no rope lying around, no stilts or wooden planks to make stilts. “HNNGH!” she groaned as she rubbed the side of her head in frustration.

The dungeon shook ominously again, as it had begun doing in the past few minutes, and Souten stared up at the ceiling. “That’s thunder. Really _powerful_ thunder.”

Kiko winced and made a mental note to stay as far away from the source of that thunder as she could. In fact, the moment she escaped from this godforsaken dungeon, she was going to go back to the village, get under her covers, and never come out again. It was a solid plan all around.

“Can you toss me up there?” Souten asked. Kiko squinted at the distance and then shook her head. 

“No way. I couldn’t get you even halfway there.” 

The thunder youkai sighed and sat down, crossing her legs and resting her chin in her palms. Kiko followed suit. The ominous thundering started anew and they both looked up for its duration. 

“It’s getting more frequent,” Souten noted. “The air pressure is changing too.”

“You can tell that?” Kiko asked.

“Of course I can! I’m a thu—”

“Oh my _god_ , I know, I know, I know what you are,” Kiko groaned and massaged her brow in frustration. “Please don’t tell me again.”

Souten’s cheeks puffed out in a perfect pout. Kiko ignored her. They remained in silence for a third rumbling of the dungeon, the loudest yet. Kiko closed her eyes and rested her head in her hands, but Souten looked up yet again. She wanted to know what was causing that thunder. It was burning in her veins, as if some sort of call was surging through her blood. What was _it_?

Tears suddenly filled her eyes again and she sniffled half in confusion. What was happening? Why was she crying like this? Thunder demons did not cry, and certainly not lords of the tribe. She rubbed her eyes frantically, willing the tears away but they did not heed her command.

Kiko glanced over at the little girl who was now frantically sobbing on the dungeon floor. “Hey, hey there,” she murmured awkwardly, “it’s going to be okay.” 

“No, it’s **_not_**!” Souten wailed suddenly. “Kagome and Shippou are going to _die_ and it’s going to be all my fault! Just because…because I was lonely and didn’t want to disappoint my brothers! I’m—I’m not worthy to lead my tribe!” 

The older girl was uncomfortable, but she reached out anyway, patting the small youkai’s back. “I’m sure it’ll be okay,” she replied, “and Kagome will definitely not being dying any time soon. So don’t even worry about that. She made me a promise and I’m not letting her go _anywhere_ until she keeps it.”

Souten’s sobs calmed a little, but she was still hiccupping. “How can you be so sure?” she asked, looking up at Kiko. “How do you know it will be okay?”

“Well,” Kiko replied after a moment, “I’m from the future, like Kagome. So if I’m still here, then that means everything probably went okay. At least, I think that’s how it works.”

Souten’s mouth twisted as the child took in this information. She scooted quickly towards Kiko and, after a moment, leaned her head against the older girl’s side. The human blinked and tensed, hoping this didn’t mean she was going to be eaten or flayed or whatever else it was that youkai got up to in their spare time. But as she realized the young girl was trying to express gratitude, Kiko smiled slightly and then gently pushed the girl’s head away. 

“Okay, girlie, that’s enough crying for now. Let’s figure out how to get out of here.” 

The thunder youkai looked up at her, smiling through her tears, and a voice high above them called out, “I can help with that.”

Both girls leapt up in shock, turning their eyes towards the exit door. High above them, the door was open, and a pair of legs swung idly off the edge. A man leaned over, older but still somewhat youthful in his mannerisms. 

“Who are you?!” Souten demanded, crackling a little peal of thunder after her question to increase its ferocity. 

“I don’t really have time for all that introduction stuff,” he called down. “I’m doing a favor for someone right now, and there’s an entity already in the castle who is going to make my life _reeeeeally_ miserable if I let her get ahold of me. So stay still.”

Kiko opened her mouth to protest, but suddenly the door they were looking up at was down in front of them. The man stood up, revealing an unexpected musculature in his legs and arms. “How did you—?” 

The man stared at her for a moment. “What part of not-wasting-time-talking did you not understand? Come on; we’re running out of time.”

Kiko snapped her mouth shut and glowered. Souten was already running through the doorway and the man stepped aside to let her through. Kiko followed behind, albeit slightly hesitant in her steps. She glanced behind her after she passed through the doorway and noticed the door was suddenly high on the wall again. She looked back at the man, who was now walking through the castle corridors at a fast pace, Souten on his tail.

“Take us to Kagome and Shippou,” Souten insisted, having to jog to keep up with his adult-length stride. Kiko held up the rear, fully intending to duck out the moment things got choppy. 

“I was already planning on it,” he replied flatly, suddenly flexing his hand at a nearby bedroom door. “That way.” 

“That’s my brother’s bedroom,” Souten protested, but as he pushed the paper door aside, wind from outside whipped both girls’ hair back away from their faces. The roof of the castle was visible through the doorway, despite it being two floors above where they actually stood. 

Souten’s grin grew and she charged out the door first. The man paused in front of the doorframe, turning to look at Kiko.

“Are you coming?”

Kiko shook her head and took a few steps back fearfully.

“Alright then,” the man shrugged. “I’m not here to drag you into a bad situation, especially with what’s out there. But I have to close the passage either way. I can’t just leave it open. Do you understand?”

Kiko didn’t quite understand and certainly didn’t want to learn any time soon.

_____________________

  

Kagome stared up at the lightning bolt as it crashed down towards her. For a moment, time stood still and she felt her irises contracting with the intense light of it. The hair on her arms was standing up and her lips were suddenly sapped of their moisture. She barely registered Shippou’s scream as the bolt crashed down upon her.

“ ** _KAGOME!!!_** ”

At the last second, a smaller, fast-moving body slammed into hers, and they both missed the lightning by a hair’s width, catching volts of smaller electricity as they fell.

Kagome and Kai crashed violently to the ground as the lightning struck where the miko had just been standing. The boy’s furs were slightly singed and Kagome’s hair frizzed out on the ends.

“Are you okay?!” he asked, shaking off the buzz in his ears.

“Kai!” Kagome yelped, grabbing the boy by the shoulders. Her fingernails were partially blackened by the electrical surge they had caught in their escape. It was not something she had time to notice, nor the ringing pain in her head. “What are you doing here?!”

“I came to help!” the boy answered, looking around. “And it looks like I was right on time, too.”

Shippou scurried to their side, launching himself into Kagome’s arms. “Kagome!” he wailed. “Kagome, are you okay?!” 

“I’m fine, Shippou, I’m fine,” she answered, glancing over at Kyuzetsu. The tengu was still flying above them, fixated on the sky above the electrified pillar. “We have to destroy that tower right now.”

“Kagome!” Sango’s voice chimed from nearby, and the three turned to see her and Miroku running up from the nearest stairwell. “What’s going on?!" 

Miroku swerved, scooping Kouryuu off the ground, before returning to the group. 

Kyuzetsu, hearing the commotion, looked back down. “You’ve _multiplied_ ,” he said in disgust. “You got past my soldiers.”

“You’ll need better than that to get past us,” Miroku retorted.

The tengu raised an eyebrow as the pillar began to glow white-hot. “Better? I can arrange _that_.”

The resulting explosion of light was as if the entire sky had erupted in a single burst of lightning. The group, huddled together, shielded their eyes and younger members simultaneously. The noise was deafening, causing Shippou and Kai to clamp their hands over their sensitive ears.

“This lightning—!” Kouryuu gasped, trying to make anything out in the brightness. 

“You know it?” Sango yelled over the din.

“No, but I’ve heard of it! The legendary lightning of the gods, the lightning bolts that carved up the world and created the first race of thunder youkai—”

The light subsided suddenly and the group tried to readjust their vision in time. Kagome looked over at the pillar, mouth dropping open. The rest of the members, seeing her face, followed her gaze.

A quiet passed over Raimei Valley as the storm clouds suddenly turned dormant. The god summoned by the pillar of lightning arose from the smoking ground he had landed upon. His skin and hair were golden, but the circles around his eyes were as dark as the storm clouds above him and his entire appearance seemed pulled from his most demonic depictions. The clothing he wore, made of something beyond the fabrics of the world he now stood in, floated around his body as if constantly caught in a windstorm.  
  
“Raijin,” Kouryuu said, voice quivering with fear. “The god of lightning.” 

Raijin opened his eyes, dark circles around irises of red, and the thunder from his arrival caught up, roaring around them so loudly that it nearly rocked the castle off its foundation.

Beside him, the hooded figure finally moved. It rose to its full height and began to walk towards the golden god. The two regarded each other, although only Raijin’s face was fully visible. Still, whatever the lightning god saw in the dark shroud of his companion was enough to make him nod and turn towards Kyuzetsu. The tengu landed instantly, falling to his hands and knees in a deep bow.

Raijin regarded him and then opened his mouth to speak. His voice was tremendously loud and very nearly unbearable. Kai’s hands went over his ears again.

“ **There is another god here.** ” 

Kyuzetsu looked up and over at Kagome’s group where they gathered together.

“ **No. Not them.** ” 

“KOURYUU!!! KAGOME! SHIPPOU!” a voice shouted from the distance. Everyone turned their heads in unison, humans, youkai, and gods alike, to see Souten running full-speed at them. 

The cloaked figure beside Raijin suddenly twisted its head, sniffing the air. In a flash of black, it charged towards Souten, body moving almost effortlessly in its speed.

“LADY SOUTEN!” Kouryuu screamed in horror as the figure reached Souten and—

The little thunder demon shrieked and struck a defensive position as the being charged her, but just as it would have collided with her, it jumped up and over her body. It landed behind her and continued running towards the man behind her.

He scratched his head lazily and said aloud, “ _Dammit_ , I was hoping to slip away before you noticed me.” 

The shrouded figure pushed both of its skinny arms out and reached for him, but suddenly he was falling through a hole in the ground below him and sliding out onto the ground beside Kagome and her companions. 

“You all need to leave as quickly as you can,” he said as the figure turned on its heels, not even needing to look for him. “This is not a battle you can win right now.” The figure closed on him again and he took a step back, disappearing into a slit in the air. He walked out several feet back and this battle of attrition began anew. The being charging at him, him disappearing in one place and reappearing in another, and again and again—it took a few cycles before anyone could understand what exactly what was happening.

Souten, in the meantime, reached the main group and pulled Kouryuu to her.

“Milady!” the little dragon cried out as he squeezed his mistress tightly. 

“Souten,” Kagome panted, rising to her feet. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

“No,” the young youkai replied. “I’m fine.” 

Kyuzetsu laughed derisively. “I told you she would be, miko. That’s because she is a sacrifice to my lord Raijin. When he devours her flesh, he will be the last being of lightning in the land.”

The lightning god, eyes fixated on Souten, as he raised one finger into the air. Around him, the storm suddenly surged again, tenfold its previous ferocity. Kagome grabbed onto Shippou, Souten, and Kouryuu simultaneously as Kai struggled to maintain a foothold on the ground against the wind. Miroku managed to grab one of the tails of his furs and Sango grabbed the boy’s shoulder, bringing him back into the fold.

“If you think I’m letting you have Souten,” Kagome yelled over the merciless wind, “you’re going to have to get through me first!”

Raijin’s mouth curved in a half-smirk and a burst of lightning sprung from his fingertips, crackling savagely as it twisted and turned, shaping itself into the crude form of a tiger.

“Get ready,” Kagome said to the group. “We’re going to go down fighting, if we have to." 

The tiger crouched down, the lightning that composed its body intensifying immensely as it suddenly leapt forward, charging for the group. It pounced, flying through the air as its targets tried to scatter, but the speed of the tiger combined with the power of its body would be too much—

“ ** _BAKURYUUHA!!!_** ”

The tiger flew back, caught in a sudden whirlwind, and came crashing back into Raijin. He was pushed a half-step back, but the lightning seemed to cause him no injury. He turned his dark eyes towards the attacker.

Inuyasha, panting heavily, looked over at his wife. “Kagome, stay back,” he said bluntly, holding Tessaiga up with both hands. “This guy is a kami—your spiritual powers won’t have any effect on him.”

“And neither will your attacks that rely on the opponent’s youki—” Kouryuu advised, still tightly clinging to his mistress. “Kami don’t have youki at all. A god's power can’t be used against them.”

“So then,” Inuyasha growled, “I’ll just have to slice him to pieces.”


	13. Through the Veil

The casino (rather tackily named Blessings of the Seven Lucky Gods Gameroom) was not a building per se, but rather a massive three-story boat docked at the Seimei City pier. It was so ornately decorated that it was nearly tawdry. A bright fire-red coating of paint covered the sides of the ship outside and all the hardwood floors inside, while golden flowers and green dragons covered almost every free inch of paneling. Ukiyo-e paintings were visible from any point on the ship, and several walls had been turned into giant murals of famous works involving youkai and kami. Giant vases and statues imitating international classics with Japanese twists highlighted the ends of each hallway. Along the major footpaths, a dark, ornate running carpet led visitors to the various rooms. The casino’s workers, young youkai men and women, were the single-best example of this in their work uniforms, which resembled festival drummers crossed with idol singers. A young man with cat ears and a bowtie above his haori greeted them at the top of the pier ramp.

“Welcome, treasured guests! I’ll need to see your IDs before I can let you into our fine establishment.”

Junko grumbled under her breath and pulled her wallet from her back pocket. It was attached with a chain to her pants, Souta noticed with a half-smile. Junko was becoming a very easy girl in predict, despite her clear attempts to appear an enigma. She plucked her ID from the top slot of her wallet and handed it over. The young man looked at it carefully and then tilted his head. 

“Official taijiya business?” he asked, voice slightly terse. It had not occurred yet to Souta that demon hunters were probably not the most popular people in a time of sustained youkai and human peace. It would certainly explain where Junko’s hard-as-bricks exterior came from.

“Nope,” Junko replied shortly. “Just leisure.”

The youkai nodded and handed the ID back to her. He turned to Hitomaru, who was digging through his own wallet.

“Err, please wait a moment,” the oni apologized, so the youkai turned to Souta and held out his hand. 

Souta stared at it for a moment. “Oh, uhh, just a moment.” He reached into his pocket and realized with a certain of anxiety that he didn’t have any government-issued ID with him. “Umm,” he muttered, pulling the only ID card he _did_ have out of his pocket, “do you take school IDs?”

The male youkai stared at him as though he had grown a third eye. Actually, Souta thought, face growing hot, around _these_ parts, that was probably a normal event that wouldn’t draw a second glance from passersby. He handed over his school card regardless. 

“You’re fifteen?” You’re too young to enter. We require all visitors to be at least sixteen years, unless they’re from a slow-developing race, which…you’re not, so. Sixteen or you don’t enter,” the greeter said plainly.

“Wait, you’re _fifteen_? I figured you were sixteen,” Junko said.

“No, but wait, how old are you?” Souta asked. 

“Seventeen,” Junko answered, brow furrowing. “You’re a _middle_ school student?”

“I’m almost out,” Souta muttered sourly.

Hitomaru retrieved his ID at least and handed it over to the greeter. “Isn’t there something you can do?” he asked politely. “Surely there’s a procedure for minors who visit with their parents on vacations from other cities.” 

“Well,” the young man admitted, looking at the three teens in front of him. “We do have a way to make that minors don’t sneak into games.” 

“That’s fine,” Junko said quickly. “Let’s just do that.”

_____________________

 

She hadn’t stopped laughing since they were allowed admittance into the casino. There had been a moment where she had seemed to finally get it under control, but then the hilarity of it sunk in again and she burst in laughs anew.

“It’s not so bad,” Hitomaru comforted. 

Souta frowned. Across his face, a shifting, blinking illusion flashed a message at any one who passed. UNDERAGE. 

Junko was in tears as they walked into the main lobby of the casino. All three floors converged in one open space, with railing protecting the two upper floor’s visitors as they peered down into the open lobby. All around, the bustle of voices, clinking chips, laughs and yells, all united into a single atmosphere. Balloons advertising various games and specials floating all about, occasionally moving of their own volition to avoid popping on the sharp ends of the room’s gaudy decorations.

“So,” Hitomaru said pleasantly. “Should we ask someone where to find Chuuro?”

“I guess,” Junko answered. She surveyed the crowd quickly, finding an attendant in a bright red haori. “Hey you,” she said, cutting across the throng of youkai moving in front of them. “Have you seen the god Chuuro?”

The worker turned to look at them. She didn’t have eyes, but rather a giant nose in the center of her face.

Souta cringed, but Junko only looked mildly embarrassed.

“Chuuro? What’s he kami of?” the girl replied, not seeming to take offense at the teenage girl’s words.

“Passages and pathways,” Hitomaru replied. “We were told by the bookkeeper in the office of kami registration that he was here.”

“Kami registration, huh?” the worker replied, then raised her nose up and sniffed deeply. After a moment, she looked back down. “We have twenty-seven kami in the casino at the moment. The one you’re looking for is in the koi-koi room. You’ll find all the hanafuda gamerooms on the same level, level two.” 

“Koi-koi,” Souta repeated and the worker’s head turned down towards him. “I’ve played that before with my grandpa.” 

“Underage players are not allowed to participate in _any_ of our gamerooms,” she said sternly and Junko burst into fresh giggles. Souta glared daggers at her as the word UNDERAGE flashed repeatedly across his features. 

“Come on, you two,” Hitomaru chuckled, grabbing both teens by the shoulders and pulling them along with him. 

________________________

 

Souta had never met a kami before, so he wasn’t sure what to expect. Sure, he was the grandson of a Shinto priest, but the body of Shinto religious texts often varied in any given kami’s depictions. Some were humanoid, some were demonic, while others were simply objects or ideas given life through worship or age.

What he definitely had not expected was an old, bald man in an Adidas tracksuit hunched over a set of hanafuda cards while sucking on the half-remains of the cigarette hanging from his lips.

“You’re early,” Chuuro said without looking up at the three teens. “Come back in a week.”

Junko snarled up her nose. “ _Excuse_ me?”

The god’s attention remained on his and his opponent’s cards. “I thought being a demon hunter came with basic listening skills. I _said_ come back in a week.”

“Why, _you_ —” Junko growled, but Hitomaru managed to grab a hold of her shoulders before she started a fight in the middle of a casino. Kirara growled in solidarity with her master from the girl’s hoodie pocket.  

“Koi-koi,” Chuuro said to the youkai opposite him, who looked something like an old lamp with multiple eyes and two disembodied hands. He glanced up at Souta, who was still staring at him.

“Kid. Seven days. I’ll bring your cousin back then, but until then, my hands are tied.” 

Souta sputtered. “Wait a minute, you _know_ what we’re here for?”

The god snorted. “Well, _of course_. When you get to be as old as me, you know things. After all, I already lived it once back then.”

Souta frowned deeply. “Lived through what?” 

“Come back in a week,” Chuuro repeated a fourth time. “I’ll tell you about it then.”

Junko and Hitomaru looked over at Souta, who was staring at the kami in disbelief. “You…you can bring my cousin back, but you’re…you’re choosing _not_ to?”

Chuuro made a half-grunt of agreement and returned to his card game. Souta’s face, blinking rapidly with the UNDERAGE message, began to redden. In one swift move, he kicked the low table where the koi-koi was being played, and the hanafuda cards scattered across the ground. 

“What good are you?!” Souta shouted, shoulders squared. “What’s the point of people worshipping you if you aren’t going to do anything when you have the ability to do so?!” 

“Souta…” Hitomaru tried to begin, but Junko slapped him in the chest.

Chuuro examined the cards where they lay on the hardwood floor and then slowly drew his gaze up to Souta’s. “You realize I can send you to a deserted island to starve to death before you’d even have a chance to take another breath?”

Souta’s face remained stoic. “Bring Kiko back home. _Right_. **_Now_**.” 

“I said, come back—” Chuuro began, raising his voice and rising to stand, but he was cut off by the room’s attendant surging over and slamming a hand into Souta’s chest. There was some sort of energy surging from a talisman in her hand and the moment it made contact with Souta, he felt everything burning inside him sap down to a small dark spot in his mind. He slumped instantly, Hitomaru only managing to catch him at the last second with a surprised grunt. 

“Interference with a game is strictly prohibited,” the attendant said as Souta’s consciousness began to fade. “You will be removed…the casino…force…”

________________________

 

The battle at the castle had gone from offensive to evasive in an instant. Inuyasha’s brute force attacks had been met with near-boredom from Raijin, while every bolt hurled by the lightning god had threatened serious harm to the hanyou. It was becoming very clear that they’d all slip up soon, with exhaustion already nipping at their heels because of the speed and mental focus it took to stay alive in this living cage of lightning. 

“I told you that this was a fight you couldn’t win!” the balding man yelled over his shoulder as he dodged yet another lunge from the shrouded figure that was trying to capture him. “Why does no one ever listen to me?” he muttered under his breath as he slipped down into a tile on the floor and emerged atop an abandoned guard booth some distance away.

“What do you—HNNGH!” Inuyasha grunted, catching and managing to deflect another bolt with Tessaiga. “GIVE US SOMETHING TO WORK WITH!!!”

The man nodded and crouched down on the roof. “They won’t pursue us,” he said as Kyuzetsu glared at him. “That’ll go against their plan, and that’s something they can’t risk. I’m going to give us an opening on the count of five. _Five_ …” He rapped his knuckles against the roof of the guard booth, peering down at its closed door. “Come on, scaredy-cat. We’re making a run for it.” Inside, Kiko shivered frantically in fear, legs pulled up to her body and chin tucked behind her knees. 

“Got it,” Kagome murmured, squaring her hips and firing another arrow at Kyuzetsu as soon as Kai returned her bow from where one blast of the tengu’s wind had sent it flying.

“ _Four_ ,” the man atop the guard booth continued. The arrow struck Kyuzetsu square in the chest, the talisman Miroku had attached to it setting it instantly aflame in holy fire. The tengu stumbled back, making a gurgling noise as his flesh began to burn. 

“ _Three_.” Shippou surged forward, a massive blast of foxfire emerging from his fingertips and surging into Kyuzetsu’s body. Knocked even further back, the tengu let out a blood-curdling scream, ripping the flaming arrow out from his body in a burst of rage and sending it clanging onto the ground.

“ _Two_.” Sango’s boomerang collided with the shrouded figure as it rushed towards the man atop the booth, sending it flying back towards Kyuzetsu and Raijin.

“ ** _One!_** ” Raijin, sensing something was amiss as the ground between all three of them suddenly transfigured into a large opening, furrowed his brow. A beam of lightning, unlike any he had sent out thus far, came springing from the skies at his command and flew towards the group, even as his body and those of his companions fell into the passages now underneath them. Kyuzetsu, clutching his heavily injured torso, grinned through the blood and burnt flesh that covered his lower face, and the shrouded being made an inhuman screech as the object of its sudden violent rage sent it away, scrambling at air as it fell. Just as quickly as it opened, the portal snapped shut, sending the three enemies to a far-off, unknown destination. 

The lightning crashed down on them, wide enough to encompass them all, until Souten stretched her arms up, pointer fingers out and managed to catch the energy and redirect it towards the nearby forest outside the castle. It crashed into the trees and set them instantly alight in a burst of fire and heat.

“Lady Souten!” Kouryuu called out, rushing to his mistress’ side. The rest of the group chased after him, but it was Inuyasha who managed to catch the young girl as she fell where she stood.

“Souten, are you okay?” Shippou cried out, jumping onto Inuyasha’s shoulder to get a better look at her as the rest of the adults and Kai.

“I’m…fine, conducting lightning is the first thing thunder demons learn…but…” she panted, looking only a few steps away from passing out. “…I’m sorry…that I caused this mess.” 

“Don’t think about that right now,” Kagome quieted her. “You didn’t know what would happen. He knew exactly what buttons to press. You did the best you could.”

“But it wasn’t enough,” the young girl whispered in reply. “All those humans…”

Sango shook her head. “That was that tengu, not you.”

Over on the guard booth, the man stretched his legs out, hanging them over the doorway. “It’s over now,” he said, kicking the door with his heel lightly. “You should come out now.” 

“Who—?” Miroku asked, but both Kai and Inuyasha recognized the scent inside. The younger youkai padded over, tugging the door open. It gave a bit of resistance, which he realized was the person inside trying to hold it shut. Without much thought, he pulled harder than the other person and the door flew open. Kiko stared up at him with wide, fearful eyes and cringed further back into the shallow shed.

“ ** _KIKO?!_** ” Kagome yelped, rising to her feet and running over. “What are you doing here?!”

The girl raised one hand wordlessly and pointed at Kai. Kagome’s forehead crinkled with the intensity of her frown and she moved into the shed, crouching down beside her cousin. “Kiko, honey, are you okay? You’re not hurt?”

“N-no,” Kiko whispered shakily. 

“What the hell were you two thinking?!” Inuyasha growled as he walked up, Souten already unconscious in his arms and Kouryuu latched onto his shoulder. “Did you really think you’d do anything than get in our way?” 

“Well, I _did_ save Kagome,” Kai pointed out and the hanyou scowled him down back into silence.

“I can use this door to take you all home, if you’ll all just…you know, get out of the shed first,” the man sitting atop the small structure chimed in. 

“Can you tell us what’s going on?” Miroku asked him. 

“Yeah, that’d be _real damn helpful_ ,” Inuyasha grunted. 

The man looked down at them all balefully. “Hey, I didn’t sign up for all this. I did my favor and now I’m almost done, so if you could just _get out of the damn shed_ …” 

“ _OR_ —” Inuyasha said in a snarl, “you tell us what the hell is going on right now and I don’t tear you apart with my bare hands.”

“ _Inuyasha_ ,” Kagome said sternly, nearly forming the word ‘sit’ on her tongue. 

“ _What?!_ This guy is holding out on us!”

“Let’s not have a marital quarrel here,” Miroku said affably, to which the married couple in question turned and simultaneously responded, “SHUT UP MIROKU!” 

“W-why are you guys not scared?” Kiko suddenly piped up, voice still quivering.

Kagome turned back to her cousin, pushing the girl’s dark hair away from her hair. Now more than ever, the shoulder-length cut required by her middle school made Kiko look even younger than her meager fifteen years. Kagome couldn’t believe how adult she had felt when she fought Naraku and the Shikon no Tama, but she was a different girl and Kiko was… “We see these kinds of things often, Kiko. We’re sort of…hardened to it, I guess.” She wrapped the teen up in a tight hug, tucking her head above Kiko’s and letting the girl cling to her arms for comfort.

“No, that’s not all I meant,” Kiko whispered frightfully. “Why weren’t you afraid of that _thing_?”

“What thing?” Kai asked. “The lightning god?” 

Kiko shook her head tightly, lips tightening and losing their usual bright color. “No, the _other_ thing. That…that woman in that black veil.”

The man pushed off the roof and landed beside the group. “Ahh, so you _could_ see her true form too. That shroud is an enchantment to deceive most eyes.”

Kagome looked up at him, gripping her cousin a little more fiercely. “What are you two talking about? That figure attacking you was…a woman? I couldn’t tell; I couldn’t see anything about it.”

“A _dead_ woman,” Kiko whimpered, burying her face in Kagome’s collarbone. “She was all _rotted_ , Kagome. I could see her face through that thing she was wearing and it was—it was—” She shuddered and stopped explaining, the horror of what she had seen beyond her vocabulary.

“Well,” the man said after a moment. “She didn’t notice that you could see her, so that’s good news out of this whole mess. Yomotsu-Shikome came after me because I’m a god. She’s spent so long in the underworld that she can’t help but go crazy whenever she senses divinity. That’s her curse, I guess you could say.”

“You’re a _god_?” Sango asked in shock, beating everyone else to the question by a millisecond.

The man rolled his eyes. “If I tell you, will you all _please_ get out of the shed so I can make it into a doorway back to your village and be done with this tedious errand? I’m Chuuro, the kami of passages. You ever heard of me?”


	14. When One Door Closes

Souta awoke in a room covered in doors and windows. He shot straight up the moment his eyes opened, but the action made him slightly dizzy and he leaned over, rubbing his head.

“About time you woke up,” a voice said to his left. Souta looked over and was surprised to see the bald god of passages sitting on the floor in front of small TV. The volume was down somewhat low, but it appeared that he was watching a comedy variety show. 

“You ever watch this one?” Chuuro asked without glancing back at Souta. “Gaki no Tsukai? It’s pretty good.” In front of him, a short table held a small bowl of shelled chestnuts and walnuts that the god was cracking and eating without taking his eyes off the TV.

Souta took in the room around him instead of answering the question. Besides the bed, TV, and short table, there was no other furniture. The room would have been considered meager if not for all the wall furnishings. Ornate doors were mounted beside shabby barn ones, open windows let in soft ocean breezes while closed ones revealed night skies or storm clouds. The sizes all varied and many looked to be from completely different times or even cultures; no two were the same.

“What…” the teen gasped in amazement, following the doors and windows even as they covered the ceiling above him. 

“Your friends are in that one,” Chuuro said, pointing without looking at one door that was slightly ajar.

Souta stood and was surprised to find that his legs didn’t feel weak, despite the weakness that had overtaken him in the casino when the attendant had slammed the suppression talisman into his chest. He walked across the room, looking at every door or window he passed along the way. The open ones all held different locations behind them and noises from the closed ones indicated they too led elsewhere. The door that Chuuro had pointed towards was short with faded white paint, yet beyond it was a long, isolated beach with white sands and a gentle summer breeze. Off in the water, Hitomaru was trying to talk Junko into a water fight while Kirara burrowed into the sand.

“Tahiti,” Chuuro said by way of explanation.

Souta turned to him. “Why did you bring us here?” 

The god didn’t respond for a while, chuckling instead at a skit on the comedy show. “I suppose,” he said eventually, “that I was curious.”

“Curious?” Souta asked with a glance back at Junko as Hitomaru accidentally splashed her and incurred her wrath. Her yells were audible even from the distance the door was from them.

“That girl with you is a pretty infamous type around these parts. Her family has been hunting demons for hundreds of years, which is pretty much the _worst_ possible career path to have in a neighborhood filled with youkai and kami. As much as we tout our peace treaties and our unity resolutions, there’s still a lot of resentment boiling underneath the surface about having to hide our true selves from human society. The local police force is mostly youkai with a few kami thrown in, but they’re not trained to deal with the worst of the worse when rebellion happens.” Chuuro turned slightly, pointing his finger towards the door again. “Her family _is_.”

“Like the snake that attacked me and my cousin,” Souta said.

Chuuro nodded and plucked a particularly thick chestnut out of the bowl. “You won’t see that in any of our papers or news broadcasts. Youkai and kami who choose to commit such crimes are out of sight, out of mind. And then you have that oni boy there, whose father loves the idea of humans so much he named his kid ‘Hitomaru,’ when most oni want nothing to do with humans at all. And then…” Chuuro cracked the shell with one tight squeeze of his fingers. “There’s you, Higurashi Souta.” 

Souta gulped. “W-what about me?” 

“A boy who would dare yell at a god…” Chuuro mused and Souta’s face reddened.

“I didn’t mean—”

Chuuro held up a hand, silencing him. “I like it. Everyone walks on their tiptoes around me, besides other kami of course, and the daiyoukai who typically just don’t fear anyone at all. And no one certainly demands I answer their questions when I’m not in the mood.”

“Ahh,” Souta said hopefully, “so you’re in the mood now?”

“Nope,” Chuuro shrugged. “Still gotta wait seven days.”

Souta visibly deflated. 

“Sorry kid,” Chuuro chuckled. “But if it’s any comfort, if we’re planning doesn’t work, none of us will even be alive for me to tell you anyway.”

“We?” 

Chuuro grinned. “The gods.” He turned back to his show, motioning back at the open beach door. “Go get your friends and tell them that it’s time for you all to go home.”

_________________________

  

The master of both doorways and avoiding questions had taken the entire group back to the village as he had promised. Souten and Kouryuu had come too, the former unknowingly as Inuyasha carried her on his shoulders and the latter very willingly as he followed his mistress devoutly. The shed door, exited last by Kiko and Kagome, had one minute been open to the dark and small storage space and then suddenly was peering out into the snowy village, where the effects of the recent storm were already visible. Downed trees off to the far ends of the village, torn thatch on roofs, and scattered pieces of clotheslines all pointed to what had recently occurred, and villagers were slowly beginning to exit their homes to survey the damage.

Inuyasha leaned up, sniffing the air lightly, and then scowled. From the roof of his house, only a few feet away from where they had exited the portal, Sesshoumaru glared. 

“Oh _brother_ ,” Shippou and Sango muttered simultaneously. 

Before the brothers could begin to verbally spar, the front door of the house flew open and Rin came running out, arms outstretched.

“EVERYONE!” she shrieked, running towards the group. “Are you all okay?! What happened?!” 

Kohaku followed behind her shortly, Etsuko and Emiko each hanging off his legs and Sho in his arms. Sango and Miroku moved forward, hoisting their children off the exasperated uncle. The teen didn’t say anything, but Sango could feel his anxiety to hear what had happened nearly radiating off him.

“We’re all fine,” Kagome answered, giving Rin a brief but tight hug. “But to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what _did_ happen.” She glanced over at Chuuro, who was trying to usher both Kirara and Kin through the portal. Both larger youkai were staring at him skeptically.

“Oh _come on_ ,” Chuuro whined, motioning with his hands. “I have better things to do, you know.”

Kin made a low noise and then leapt through the doorway first, moving towards Kai’s side as the two briefly brushed their heads together, the boy crouching down on his legs. Kirara followed shortly, shrinking in size as she did so. This allowed her to jump into Etsuko’s arms when the quiet child reached towards her.

“Thank _god_ ,” Chuuro muttered, unironically, as the portal snapped shut and revealed itself to be the doorframe of the nearby barn. He wiped his palms on his pants and went to close the door, only realizing at the last moment that the entire group, new members included, were staring at him. “No,” he said firmly, holding up a finger. “I did my duty.” 

“But—” Shippou protested, falling on deaf ears as the god suddenly threw the barn door back open, revealing a completely different scene, and walked through. It slammed shut behind him with a particularly hateful crack, and the group turned to look at each other in surprise.

“Well,” Miroku muttered as Lady Kaede emerged from her nearby home and came towards them. “I suppose that conversation won’t be happening.” 

Rin glanced between the various members of the return party. She always enjoyed moments like these because she could see the bonds between people as clearly as if they were physical threads. Kagome and Inuyasha had slowly drawn towards each other, despite not actively paying attention to one another. The hanyou slipped his hand over his wife’s shoulder without even looking over at her. Shippou was staring at Inuyasha’s free arm, where Souten lay in deep sleep. He asked Inuyasha some question, perhaps sarcastically, and the older man glared at him. Miroku and Sango were telling their children and Kohaku about the monsters they had been fighting. Emiko and Kohaku looked particularly engaged in the conversation, but Etsuko was more interested in running her fingers through Kirara’s fur to try and remove some of the burnt and frizzed tufts. Kai had remained crouched down by Kin, and the two wolves were speaking in low growls and whines. Lady Kaede had moved to Kiko’s side and was examining the girl for cuts and scrapes. She seemed physically fine, Rin noticed, but was shaking badly.

She moved to her side, putting a hand gently on her arm. “Kiko? Are you alright?”

The other girl glanced over at her. Rin was surprised to see how pale her face was. “Rin,” Kiko whispered, and then suddenly looked teary. “ _RI-HI-HI-INNNNN!!!_ ” She threw herself into the younger teen’s arms, breaking down into loud tears. “IT WAS SO SCARY, RIN!”

Rin, surprised by this show of emotion, patted Kiko on the back gently. “There, there,” she soothed, “it’s okay now.” The older girl continued crying, though, clearly now in the habit and unable to stop.

Sesshoumaru watched this for a moment before he leapt from the roof where he was standing towards a neighboring roof. Rin spotted him at the last minute and felt her face break into a wide smile. “Lord Sesshomaru!” she called out, waving to him with the arm that was not comforting Kiko. “Thank you!”

The dog-lord glanced back, but only slightly, and their eyes met briefly. And then, just as quickly as he came, he was gone again, jumping from the village rooftops into the trees and then out of sight. Rin smiled after him for a moment and then looked back down to Kiko. 

The teen was staring at where Sesshoumaru had just disappeared, eyes wide and starry, tears and fears forgotten. Rin knew that look and knew _exactly_ what she was going to say before she even said it.

“Who was _that_? He was…he was _totally_ my type!” 

____________________

  

“Yomotsu-Shikome?” Lady Kaede repeated.

Kagome nodded, curling up closer to her husband underneath the thick blanket covering their legs. Freshly bathed, she found that there was no better source of warmth in this cold winter air than Inuyasha, who in turn never seemed to care that she was constantly sticking cold body parts to him. “That’s what Chuuro said, at least.”

The elderly woman frowned deeply. 

“And the lightning god, Raijin, as well,” Miroku added after a moment. His own face was a mirror of hers, but no one in the room looked particularly excited to be there.

“And you said there was a pillar built atop Souten’s castle?” Lady Kaede continued.

Inuyasha added, “We found one in the northern tengu village as well. It had been there for a long time, probably around the time we were still fighting Naraku and the Shikon no Tama. It looked like a lot of tengu died early, but some were kept and…” He glanced at his wife, hating to say things that would make her expression darken. “…someone tortured them for a long time before finishing them off.”

“Could it have been Kyuzetsu?” Sango asked. “Souten said he claimed to be from the Northern Tengu Tribe and he certainly seemed malevolent enough to pull something like that off.”

“I think so, too,” Kagome said. “It’s the best explanation.”

Lady Kaede was still thinking, the gears in her head almost visibly spinning. After a moment, she rose to her feet and went to the far wall of her home. There, a wall-to-wall set of shelves held various sizes of scrolls and papers. She searched amongst them and then chose a larger one near the top. Returning to the group, she crouched down, unrolling the scroll with a swift shake of her hands. The painting was very old, even by the standards of many of Kaede’s artifacts, but the colors were still bright as if it had been painted yesterday. The various panels depicted two beings, a man and a woman, rising from the clouds and creating a large island with a long spear, then the man and woman marrying, not once but twice, and the woman bearing numerous children and the islands that would later become Japan.

“Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto,” Miroku murmured.

“Hey,” Inuyasha said, “I remember that one. Izanami and Izanagi got married and had lots of children, but then Izanami died and Izanagi followed her to the underworld.”

“He wanted to bring her back,” Sango continued. “But first she made him promise that he wouldn’t look at her until they were out of the underworld. He eventually broke that promise, and realized she was a decayed corpse. In retribution, she tried to trap him in the underworld with her, but he managed to block the entrance to the underworld at the last second before her followers caught him.”

Kaede nodded. “There are several different versions of the legend, but most often, it was Raijin and Yomotsu-Shikome who chased Izanagi in the underworld.”

“So then what?” Inuyasha asked. “Two gods who used to be in the underworld are now back in the world of living? What are they doing here? Still trying to catch Izanagi?”

“I do not think so,” Kaede answered, “but I cannot be sure. The most powerful of the gods have been silent for hundreds of years. They dwell in a realm separate from both our own and the underworld. It seems that there is another goal…but without more information, I fear we can’t determine what that may be.” 

“So then we’re dealing with something pretty far outside our paygrade,” Kagome said softly. “And we don’t even know exactly what it is.” 

“Great,” Inuyasha grumbled. “A typical Monday for us.”

_______________________

 

Rin and Kohaku had spent the last hour cleaning the village pathways of the broken limbs and scattered leaves from the storm. It wasn’t difficult work for either teen, so Rin spent the entire time talking. Reminiscing, mostly, about the days when she and Kohaku had followed Sesshomaru on his quest to understand his father’s wishes and defeat Naraku. Kohaku wasn’t honestly sure Rin truly grasped how little Sesshomaru had to do with the final battle, but she was trickily aware at times, so he didn’t think too much about it.

“Do you ever wish you could do it again?” 

Kohaku shook his head. “I’d never go back to being Naraku’s slave or Kikyo’s charity. It was bad enough the first time around.”

“No,” Rin argued, raising up and dusting her kimono free of a clump of snow and leaves that had clung to it. “I don’t mean that. I mean, be born again. Get another chance at life entirely. Have a different childhood.”

He stared at her. “That’s a pretty big jump in the conversation.” 

Rin shrugged. 

After a moment of silence, he asked, “Do you?”

She shrugged again. “Maybe. Sometimes. But then I would never have met Lord Sesshomaru. He’s my most important person.”

Kohaku didn’t reply. He was too busy staring at the road leading away from village, itching to get out again. Sango and Miroku’s guilt trips were starting to lose their power over the young man. 

“You’ll be leaving soon?”

He nodded quietly.

“When?”

“After Hatsumode.”

“How long will you be gone?”

“I’m not sure. However long I need to be to help out the other villages. Out there, I may be able to find more answers about what happened to the others in the Raimei Valley.”

Seeming satisfied with this answer or perhaps just not having the words to argue, Rin returned to sweeping, increasing her speed as the sun began to set. Kohaku followed suit, but suddenly turned his head and looked towards the woodsline. Kai and Kin were leaving the village to return to the other wolves.

Kohaku snuck a look at Rin, who suddenly looked slightly more relieved. Having the wolves around made the girl particularly nervous and uncomfortable, that much was clear. It was a topic that had rolled around in his brain for the past few hours, but try as he might, he could find no will within himself to bring it up. 

Why was it so hard to say the things that he could visualize so clearly in his mind?

“Where’s Kiko?” he said by way of avoiding the topic he actually wanted to talk about. 

“Inside Kagome and Inuyasha’s place with Souten and Kouryuu,” Rin answered, not noticing the contemplation on her friend’s face. “She said that Kagome basically ‘grounded’ her, which is apparently when you get forced to stay inside your house as a punishment for doing something bad.”

Kohaku twisted his mouth. “The future is really strange.”

Rin nodded in agreement. “I’m honestly surprised that Kiko was obeying it, but then again, I think she was probably pretty shaken up by seeing that fight and the corpse-woman.”

“She _does_ have a tendency to misrepresent her motives to save face,” Kohaku muttered, to which Rin grinned.

“Ahh, so you noticed that too?”

______________________

 

There was screaming coming from the general’s room.

When the guests had first arrived, the general had ordered his retainers to stand watch at the gates. ‘ _Under no circumstances will you enter my quarters_ ,’ he had commanded, leading his guests away as soon as his men agreed. But now the second-in-command had grown worried. The screaming had started early the night before and it was now nearly morning. Silences would drag out for almost an eternity and just when the second-in-command thought it would be over, the screams would resume.

He looked out the nearby window, where Mount Fuji was illuminated by the beginnings of the rising sun. He had taken an oath of fealty to this man, and now he would sit there and not investigate the screaming because of that very oath. 

It did not seem right. 

Surely, it was _not_ right.

He stood slowly. Throughout the night, he had crept closer and closer to the general’s room, torn between his duty and his heart. Each time, something would stop him. A silence or his own misgivings about breaking a command, perhaps. Once, it had been the soft laugh of a woman.

But now there was nothing to hold him back. He rose to his feet, one hand on his short sword, and pushed the door aside with ease.

Inside, a man lay on the floor, skin crackled and scorched around great wounds in his chest. Much of the skin was already debrided, but the general was still working on it. 

“General,” the second-in-command whispered when he realized that the man on the floor had two great, black wings.

The general turned slightly and the second-in-command instantly saw the blackness in his eyes. The second-in-command looked down and stared at the fist that was sticking through his own chest. It was holding his heart. 

He fell almost soundlessly, watching the woman in the corner of the room rise and slowly walk towards him. She pulled her veil back and he saw her face, grey from decay and utterly rotten in large swaths. She opened her mouth and maggots fell from her tongue. The second-in-command opened his mouth to scream, but found no life left in him to do so. 

As Yomotsu-Shikome feasted on the body, Raijin resumed to his seat in the room, watching the general fix the worst of Kyuzetsu’s wounds. He looked down at the heart in his hands and admired the bright color of it. Its beating began to slowly subside and he frowned. A small bolt of lightning burst from his palm and resuscitated it. The beating continued for a few moments, then began to fade too. Again he shocked it. 

Over and over again this continued, and several hours later when Kyuzetsu awoke in bandages, he saw the lightning god still holding the ashy remains of a charred heart.


	15. Strength in Stillness

It had been three days since Souta and Kiko had been attacked in the Bone-Eater’s Well and the girl cousin had been sent back through time. The boy cousin now sat in an trendy café, staring at his girlfriend as she gingerly poked around the fanciful desert they had ordered to share. 

‘ _Don’t tell anyone about what you’ve learned,_ ’ Junko had ordered while shaking a warning finger in his face. ‘ _Except your immediate family. Definitely **not** your girlfriend, is what I mean, loverboy._ ’

Souta snorted and helped himself to a scoop of ice cream and melon balls. He had no intentions of telling Hitomi anything. Hitomi had come, over the years, to represent a sort of normality that Souta had thought impossible after his sister permanently left for the Sengoku Period. Whenever things just go too _weird_ , he’d turn to Hitomi. And right now, things were majorly, massively, _entirely_ weird.

It had been a surprisingly wise investment of his first romance as a young boy—as Hitomi grew, her beauty and personality seemed to be ever constant. She had let her hair grow out a bit and now the soft brown curls reached down to her shoulder blades. Her eyes were as big and beautiful as ever, but her smile certainly seemed to have become more captivating over time to Souta. The mysteries behind her smile had once been innocent, but now Souta sometimes felt a different, more adult, pull of wondering how far her secrets went. Sometimes he wanted so badly to be fully grown, if only so he could learn those secrets like the back of his hand—to look into her eyes and understand her thoughts with any degree of certainty.

However, at the moment, it was Hitomi who was unsure of the uncertainties in her partner’s eyes.

“Souta?” she called out. “Are you feeling alright? You seem a little distant.”

Souta started and looked down at the spoonful of ice cream, which had already melted in the time he had spent musing over his girlfriend. He chuckled nervously and then popped the spoon into his mouth quickly. “I’m fine! But hey, this place is as good as the guys at school said, huh?” he said around the cold metal in his mouth.

Hitomi watched him for a moment and then smiled lightly. “Yes, it’s so nice here.” She admired the view from their window seat. A small pond, heavy with frost and spotted with duck families, lay before them. Some patio seats outside that faced the pond were coated in snow. “Let’s come back when spring comes.”

“Yeah!” Souta grinned. “I think those are cherry blossom trees, so we could meet here to look at them and then head to the festival together.” 

She blushed ever so lightly and he felt his own cheeks tint. Even after five years of dating, she always seemed so pleased with the smallest promises of their future together. 

“Hitomi,” he sighed. “You’re just so cute.”

The girl giggled softly and reached over to fix the collar of his shirt. “And you’re very handsome! But I thought you said you hurt your arm the other day? Didn’t you have to go the hospital?”

Souta froze. He had told her that, in a haze of medication right after they had reached the emergency room. “Err…” he began. His brain was drawing a blank. _Shit_.

Hitomi looked at him, her large eyes so curious and ready for an explanation. And here he was, a terrible boyfriend who was going to have to lie to her. Again. 

“Well, you see,” he began, clearing his throat. “I went to one doctor but then yesterday my arm felt a lot better so we went back and saw a different doctor and he said that the other guy was pretty new and just got really concerned over a bruise on the bone. So it wasn’t as bad as they thought. I feel great now!”

“You’re so lucky. It would have been bad if your arm was really broken! But then again, I could’ve helped you carry your books to class and taken notes for you if it still wasn’t healed by the time school starts back.”

‘ _Dammit!_ ’ Souta thought miserably, ‘ _why couldn’t that doctor left my arm alone!?_ ’

“Oh, that reminds me!” Hitomi continued. “My parents want to come to your family’s shrine again this year for Hatsumode next week. Is that okay?”

Souta’s smile grew. “Of course! I made you another omamori for this year. Is that okay?”

Hitomi returned his smile with her own shy one. “I love the one you made for me last year, so I’d hate to see it burnt. But I also would love to see the new one you made, so I can make my peace with it.”

“Great!” Souta said and then paused suddenly, face freezing. 

“Hmm? What’s wrong, Souta?”

“Err…well…”  
  
“What is it?” 

“It’s just that…uhh…I think my cousin may have accidentally taken your omamori.” Souta quickly tried to recover. “I think she got it mixed up with one of hers! But it’s okay—I’ll get it back in time for Hatsumode!”

Hitomi didn’t quite frown, but she did tilt her head. “Your cousin, Kiko? Isn’t she doing the miko kagura? I’m sure she’ll realize and give it back.”

Souta tried to think of the best wording he could that didn’t make what he said next a total lie. He was _really_ trying to cut back on lying to Hitomi wherever possible. And given how much more complicated his life had become in the past 72 hours, he was pretty sure lying was about to become a way of life unless something gave soon.

“Yeah…I’m sure she’ll return it when she comes back to the shrine,” he chuckled and then motioned towards their dessert. “Ahh! Eat faster, Hitomi! The ice cream is melting!”

________________________

  

“Left or right?” Kiko asked. It had been nearly a week and a half since she had landed in the Sengoku Era with half a dead snake demon. Unaware of the time disparity between herself and her cousin back in the modern world, she vaguely wondered if they had started printing her face on milk cartons or billboards. But most of her thoughts went towards her handiwork now, in this time.

Rin twisted her mouth and considered her options. “Right. No, left.”

Kiko raised an eyebrow.

“Left. Definitely left. I always wear it on the right, so it’ll be a nice change of pace.”

Souten interrupted from the doorway, arms crossed across her chest, “Warriors don’t care about such things.”

“Well, good for warriors,” Kiko replied flatly as she pulled Rin’s half-ponytail down and reached for the boar bristle brush. 

“Vanity is a weakness,” Souten added. 

Kiko shrugged as she began to brush Rin’s hair in long, slow strokes. The younger teen closed her eyes and relaxed, but the youkai child looked even more frustrated. 

“I don’t see why it makes such a difference what your hair looks like, anyway,” Souten added, sitting down on the floor without entering the room. “It’s going to get messy if you do anything fun.”

Miroku and Sango had kept their children today and Kagome was helping Lady Kaede work on the finishing touches for Hatsumode, so the house was rather quiet. Even Kohaku had stayed inside his sister’s house, presumably planning the route of his next trip. Now, the three girls clustered together, but only two seemed to actually be having any fun. 

“So what kind of girls does Sesshoumaru like?” Kiko asked, ignoring Souten altogether. She gathered Rin’s hair in her free hand, smoothing out the static, and resumed brushing. 

“Well,” Rin began. “I don’t really know that Sesshoumaru likes most girls. But I guess if I had to say, maybe…dark hair, red eyes, uses fans?” 

“Uses fans?” Kiko repeated under her breath. “ _Red eyes_? Are we talking about humans?” 

“Oh no, of course not,” Rin replied. 

“ _Right_. I guess I have a pretty uphill battle, huh?”

Rin giggled lightly. 

“Oi,” Kiko mumbled, tugging on a strand of the younger girl’s hair. “Don’t laugh at my troubled love life.” 

“Pahh,” Souten spat. “A warrior doesn’t need a love life. Boys are weak.”

“Well, I don’t disagree with that second part,” Kiko shrugged. 

“Souten,” Rin said, breaking up that strand of conversation. “Did you remember anything else that would help us figure out what happened at your castle?”

The thunder youkai frowned and shook her head. Try as she might, there were not other details that she could provide for the group. She desperately wanted to be useful to them now, particularly in light of the trouble she had caused in the first place, but the holes in what had happened were as large now as they were two days ago when they had all tried to put the pieces together.

“Whatever’s going on, I don’t want any part of it,” Kiko asserted as she moved onto separating Rin’s hair and carefully braiding the strands. Souten watched this part intently, her interest more than a little piqued.

“Kiko…” Rin said.

“Nope. I don’t care. That woman was _creepy_ and I don’t want to ever see her again. I don’t even watch scary movies back at home, so why would I want to be in a real-life one? Nope. No thanks. And if you’ve got any sense, you’ll stay away from her too.” It wasn’t clear which girl she was talking to.

“Sometimes we don’t have a choice about what happens to us,” Rin replied. “Sometimes you just get pulled into things.”

“I don’t get pulled into anything,” Kiko said, oblivious to the fact that this was already a lie; Kai had pulled her into the castle rescue as a result of her own insistence on acting confident in front of others.

“Can I ask something?” Rin said. She tried to look over her shoulder but Kiko slapped her shoulder lightly to remind her to stay forward as she worked. 

“Sure, go for it.”

“Why are you telling us this? You’ve been acting like it was not a huge deal with the adults.”

Kiko froze. This was not something that she allowed herself to think about too deeply. Part of the answer was something that she did not consciously understand: her own deeply conflicted personality, torn between the egotism of her upbringing and the impressive selflessness of Kagome. But she could speak for the part of herself she understood a little, even with the bare remains of self-reflection she rarely allowed herself to undertake.

“I suppose,” she began, “it’s because young girls need to stay true to each other.”

Rin and Souten looked at each other, surprised by the gravity of Kiko’s words.

“Now,” Kiko continued, “what do you think about this?”

Rin reached over for a hand mirror and examined her peer’s work. The delicate braids from the top strands of her hair combined with a larger braid at the bottom into a curled rosette on the left side of her head. “Wow,” she breathed. “That’s really pretty!”

“I know, right?” Kiko replied, puffing her chest out. “I’m basically an expert at hairstyling. I do all my baton team’s hairstyles when we do performances.”

She jumped slightly as something brushed against her hand. Turning, Kiko stared at Souten, who had silently entered the room and sat down beside her. The young girl was holding the boar bristle brush and staring at the floor, her cheeks red. She shot a quick glance up at Kiko and Rin, and then flushed even deeper and held the brush out to the eldest girl. 

Looking at each other, both Kiko and Rin smiled lightly.

“Souten,” Kiko said in a light voice as she began to undo the child’s pigtails, “do you want left or right?”

____________________

 

Inuyasha was having the best nap in nearly two weeks. He had a preferred tree branch, one that sat high in a tree at the edge of the village but was shielded well from the elements. No sunburn, no excessive rain, no clearing off snow, and a great view of both the woods and the village. It was the _perfect_ spot and at the moment, he was sprawled across it like a king in his bed. 

His dreams were starting to solidify as he drifted further and further into sleep. Kagome was standing in the doorway of their home, wearing something entirely sheer and quite indecent. She had a short pair of dog ears atop her head and he tweaked them playfully as he pulled her into his arms. 

‘ _Bad boy_ ,’ she murmured as he leaned in to kiss her.

The dream was still forming, but so was a gust of wind from the woods. Inuyasha didn’t realize it was coming until it nearly knocked him off the branch, sending his dreams and his dream-Kagome far away. He managed to catch himself on the trunk of the tree as the gust slowed down and became a very visibly panting boy.

“Kai!” he growled. “What’s happened?! It better be good, you little runt, because I was just about to—”

The white-haired wolf was grinning from ear to ear even as he panting and dripped sweat. It was a triumphant, proud sort of beam that Inuyasha had never seen on the boy’s face. In a single, swift rush, Kai joined him on the tree branch. 

“Ayame had her baby!”  

And with that, the boy was gone again, running towards the village. Inuyasha peered after him, feeling his own face lift into a smile as he processed the information. 

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he chuckled. “Best news I’ve heard all week.”


	16. Reaching an Understanding

In just a few short days, the mountainous vale that served as the home of the united wolf tribe had seen two different visits from Inuyasha. Given how much the hanyou disliked the smell of wolves and _particularly_ how much he bickered with Kouga, this was nothing short of a _miracle_.

Some of the wolves from the other tribes were not as comfortable with Inuyasha, Kagome, and rest of the group as the eastern wolves had become, so as the outsiders approached the northern pass, many of them retreated into their dens. It was a natural and justifiable reaction after all; Kagome and Miroku between just themselves could easily take out many of the wolves with their spiritual powers. Factor into that Sango and Kohaku, who were demon hunters, and Shippou and Inuyasha, who were powerful youkai in their own right, and the wolves, still rebuilding their past numbers, were wary. 

Kiko noticed the faces that were watching them from all corners as the descended down the northern path that demarcated wolf territory into the wolves’ community proper. Oblivious to the reputations and abilities that many of her companions possessed, she supposed the wolves to either be shy or socially awkward. 

By her side, Kagome knew better. When she had decided to come back to the Sengoku Era, she had done so for Inuyasha and her friends. Love motivated her beyond all factors; the future could offer her technology, trendy fashion, and even international travel, but for her, it would mean nothing if Inuyasha and her friends were not there. Yet, she hadn’t expected the past to be so… _lonely_. If she thought about it, that made no real sense. Her husband was here, and her best friends, and a little youkai who had become something akin to her littlest brother or perhaps even a surrogate child, but yet she was sometimes _incredibly_ lonely. When she had come back, three years after she had wished the Shikon no Tama out of existence, her feat had not been forgotten. The common people in Lady Kaede’s village were initially overjoyed to have her return, but their mood quickly turned to obligation.

‘ _Lady Kagome saved us from the Shikon no Tama, so we must address her politely._ ’

‘ _Lady Kagome saved us from the Shikon no Tama, so we must never bore her with the details of our mundane lives._ ’

‘ _Lady Kagome saved us from the Shikon no Tama, so she is not one of us. She can never be one of us._ ’

Kagome had never felt so out of place. But it wasn’t a malevolent sentiment. To the villagers and those who often made pilgrimage to the shrine Kagome ran alongside Lady Kaede, Kagome was something akin to a goddess made human flesh. She was always to be a level above them, a girl revered and respected but never approached, never befriended. Over the past two years, Kagome had learned, rather painfully, that her circle of friends and family would never grow to include the regular people around her. Kagome didn’t regret her decision, even after discovering this, but it certainly made the entire world feel shut off in a way that it never had been before. And now, walking in a village of youkai where seventy percent of the members were too alarmed by her presence to even step outside their homes was no particular comfort, nor a particular surprise. It was an unfortunate side effect of the life that she had so fervently begged for each night for three long years.

“ _Jeez_ ,” Shippou said, “to look at these guys out here, you’d never think the rest of the wolf tribes all came down and joined together.”

“Well, that makes sense,” Miroku conceded. “We mainly dealt with the Kouga’s clan. The rest have no real experience with us, besides Ayame and her grandfather. Oh, and Kai here.” He reached down and patted their young guide on the shoulder.

The adolescent wolf was still flushed from exertion and grinning from ear to ear. He had repeatedly run ahead of the group as they traveled to the wolves’ hamlet, doubling back each time he realized that only one of them could keep up with him and that the particular nekomata in question could only hold three on her back at a time. Inuyasha had contended that this was particularly obnoxious behavior, arguing that another wolf newborn couldn’t be _that_ exciting with as many as the tribe had had in the past few years, but Kagome saw how he smiled every time he said the words ‘newborn’ and ‘baby.’ After the hell that Naraku and the Shikon no Tama had put the entire nation under, it was a relief to see yet another example that not only would the youkai affected rebound, but that there would be a future for them after all.

Kagome’s only real regret was that she couldn’t see what the world of youkai had grown to during her time. The few youkai she had run into back there (it was so strange to use the word ‘back’ to talk about the future, she realized very early on) were all connected back to this time. She had often wondered where they had all gone—had they intermarried with humans to the point that few of them remained intact with knowledge of their cultures and histories, or had they survived in small pockets together somewhere beyond human intervention?

__________________________

 

Souta had taken the Seimei City subway to Junko’s house. It was as if he was starring in some new Ghibli film. The youkai all around him were various shades of humanoid and he was certainly the most human-looking person in the train car. Nonetheless, dressed in their work suits or leisure clothing and looking utterly in place amongst one another, no one seemed to stick out more than Souta himself. But none of the youkai had looked at him oddly or, indeed, seemed to really notice him at all. Beyond the appearances of the people on the train with him, there was no difference in their behavior from humans on the same sort of public transport—a small group of teenagers were watching a friend play a game on his phone, an older man had an entirely age-inappropriate anime bag slung over his arm, a girl was giving her boyfriend the cold shoulder as he tried to explain why he hadn’t remembered their anniversary, an elderly married couple shared the weight of their grocery bags.

Souta had never felt so out of place. But he was recovering from the shock of it, slowly but surely, as he spent more and more time exploring Seimei City. The entirety of this morning had been used remembering the main roads in the entrance Junko had taken him to on the first day, and now he was meeting up with her at her house. She had given him instructions, thinking that his memory from their first visit would fill in the blanks, but Souta was already a little nervous. He had been heavily medicated at that point, and the roads in this place seemed to sometimes twist up and envelop him, inviting him to get lost deep in its corridors. Hitomaru had called that ‘ _the city fighting back_ ’ and noted that all humans who visited had to struggle against a nearly sentient glamour that had enveloped the area for hundreds of years. Even Junko, born and raised in this side of Tokyo, had to keep her wits about her in the deepest back reaches of the city. But the difference between her and Souta was that she had learned this skill as a young child, while Souta was trying to learn it very quickly as an almost-grown man. 

When he exited the subway station, the road seemed calm and ready to accept him. But the moment he reached the darker passes near Junko’s house, it began calling to him. He knew it wouldn’t hurt him if he did get lost, as Hitomaru had assured him that he would just wake up in another human-dominated part of Tokyo as if he never been in Seimei City in the first place, but it was still not a side-trip Souta had time for. 

He looked at his watch. 3:04. Six minutes to when he told Junko he’d arrive, and he couldn’t quite understand her hastily scribbled directions to find her house again. Souta looked left and then right at the nearest intersection of two roads. He vaguely remembered this area, if he could just think about it. 

Deep in thought as he retraced his steps from day one, Souta nearly jumped out of his skin when a large hand clapped onto his shoulder. 

“Ahh, sorry!” Hitomaru immediately apologized. “Junko thought you might get lost, so she sent me to find you.” 

Souta clutched his chest, where his heart pounded traitorously. ‘ _There’s nothing to fear here, Souta,_ ’ he thought to himself sternly. And yet Chuuro’s words came drifting back to him. There were still youkai that committed the worst of crimes, violating the ancient treaties of peace that had kept both Seimei City and larger Tokyo safe. And the majority of the inhabitants of this enclave chose to pretend as though they didn’t exist at all.

Out of sight, out of mind. _That_ kind of thinking seemed all the more dangerous to Souta.

____________________

 

Kouga and Ayame’s newborn was a little bundle of furs and sleep by the time the group had reached the innermost den. Kiko had protested to having to go under a waterfall, but it was the safest place for newborns and their mothers to stay, and _safe_ had become the name of the game in the face of possible extinction. The final compromise was to have Kirara put her tail over the teen’s hair as they both rushed through the water. 

All around them, other new mothers, some more ‘new’ than others, rocked tiny babies while working on their individual chores. The den, which had originally housed the Eastern Wolf Clan in its earlier days, was carved into several smaller den areas for individuals to rest or work without disturbing the others. Some mothers were carving bows and arrows, while others patched up fishing nets and baskets. And some yet were instructing still-pregnant women on proper breathing, preparation planning, and answered their questions.

Ayame was in a den further back than most others. A spread of furs and fabrics covered her entire lower body, and she looked a little tired, if not happy, when the group came in to see her, led by a grinning Kouga. Shinta was at her side, sitting on the furs and staring at the bundle in her arms.

“She’s _gorgeous_ ,” Kagome whispered the moment she got a good look at the tiny newborn in question. 

“Isn’t she?” Kouga said proudly. Miroku gave him a firm pat on the back, father to father. “The birth went fine. She’s got a set of lungs on her. A real howler.”

Inuyasha visibly restrained a joke and instead crouched down to examine the baby closer. “Ayame, she’s definitely taken after you.”

The mother pinkened a little. “You think so?”

“Yeah,” Inuyasha said, losing the battle to keep the joke in. “If she took after her dad, she’d be an ugly little thing, but she’s pure cute.” 

Kouga’s eyebrow twitched but he kept his proud grin. An insult against his appearance in exchange for a compliment of his child’s? That was a bargain he could easily make, particularly since he thought the baby was simply the most _beautiful_ thing he had ever seen. 

“Shinta helped a lot with the birth,” Ayame added, using her free hand to pat the young wolf on the head. “He’ll make a great healer, if he decides to go that way.”

Kai smiled at his little brother as he joined them on the furs. Shinta had none of the traits that would make a good warrior, but those of a good leader he had in spades. A healer, Kai could definitely see. He was kind-hearted and gentle, with an inner strength that surfaced when caring for others rather than himself. Kai himself wasn’t all that different, but he preferred to help with his fists rather than poultices or splints.

Neither boy fully comprehended that Ayame and Kouga had long thought as this baby as their _third_ child, although Shinta was much closer to understanding than his older brother. 

Closer to the entrance of the smaller den, Kohaku’s nose had been scrunched up since they had arrive in the village. Sango glanced over at him. 

“Headache?” she asked quietly.

He nodded. The ability that had arrived in the wake of the Shikon no Tama shard had a bad habit of making him miserable if he spent too much time in a place like _this_. All the youkai around him were inadvertently making Kohaku’s head spin. He’d need a breath of fresh air soon. He was glad that Rin had stayed in the village with Souten and the other children, as having to watch over her on top of this headache would have been nearly impossible.

“Hey, you two,” Kouga called out to Kiko and Kohaku, who had both hung back a little further than the rest of the crowd. “Come see the princess of the wolf clan.” Shippou had charged right in with Kagome and was already looking down at the child. 

Kiko’s ears would have perked at the word ‘princess’ had they the ability to do so, and she approached as requested. She had spent most of the trip worrying about what might happen to her in a big mountain full of wolf youkai, and Rin’s strange silence on the matter was no help. Normally, the younger girl was a wealth of knowledge about various youkai and Kiko couldn’t get her to shut up once she got started, but when Kiko had asked what wolf youkai were like, Rin had looked kind of funny and suddenly remembered something urgent she had to do for Lady Kaede.

Having enough sense to file that reaction behind ‘look into later,’ the teenager had come along anyway. After all, if the group around her couldn’t take care of anything they ran into, no one else could. And besides, she was _dying_ to see where Kai was coming from every day. He had continued coming every day, like clockwork, even though there was no official reason for him to do so. He mostly watched them do things from a distance, but if she called out to him, he was eager to help. Conversation was a little more difficult, because the gap between the two of them as a youkai from the past and a human from the future seemed massive at times. He had a little more in common with Kohaku (and even more in common with Shippou) and thus the boys had begun having conversations about youkai migration patterns and racial weaknesses regularly. Most of these conversations seemed to be Shippou talking the majority of the time, Kai sometimes adding some small detail, and Kohaku occasionally making noises of agreement to let everyone know he was still listening. Souten spent most of her time running back and forth between the two gendered groups, wanting to hear what the boys were talking about when it came to fighting and weapons while also hungry for the deeper connection that Rin and Kiko had already created between themselves.

Kiko approached from the side, trying to stay quiet so as not to wake the baby. Kohaku followed behind, keeping a small bit of distance hanging there, but able to see much more clearly than from the entrance of the den. Kiko did not sit down, but rather leaned over Kai’s sitting frame as she looked down at the newborn, using his shoulders to anchor herself to keep from falling. Kai looked up at her and grinned as if to say, ‘ _See? She **IS** cute!_ ’

And cute she was, indeed. Her face was still very round and pink, but the color was settling quickly—she’d be somewhere between her mother’s pale and her father’s tan. In sleep and at her age, it’d be impossible to tell what color her eyes would turn out, but the dense tufts of auburn hair atop her head were already proclaiming her to be a perfect mix of her two parents. One of her tiny hands grasped the furs that she was wrapped in, while the other curled near her cheek. She squirmed a little in her sleep, perhaps sensing all the eyes on her.

“Holy _crap_ ,” Kiko whispered reverently. “That is the cutest thing I have ever seen.”

Ayame smiled down at her and Kouga looked like he might start oozing sentimentality at any moment.

“We’re calling her Momokaku for now,” he said with a smile.  
  
“Peach pit?” Kiko asked in confusion. She wasn’t sure how youkai names worked, but his wording was strange. “Is that not her real name?” 

“Wolves give their kids milk names,” Inuyasha explained in a rare moment of vocal wisdom. “Until the end of the first winter.”

“Showoff,” Kouga chuckled. “You just learned that from me last week.”

The two men began to lightly verbally spar again, and the rest of the group took that as an opportunity to leave Ayame and her baby in peace so they could rest. 

“Inuyasha,” Kagome said, tugging on her husband’s ear, “let Kouga go be with his wife and baby. I want to talk to you anyway.”

“Huh? About what?” he replied as she dragged him to a different, empty den and they began talking in low tones. 

“What’s that all about?” Miroku asked and Sango shrugged him off with a smile. 

“I’ll tell you later.” 

The four teens and the young wolf child, completely out of the loop and unaware there was even a loop to be in, seemed to be standing around awkwardly. Kiko, never one for discomfort, spoke first.

“Isn’t there a place to meet the other kids and sit down or something?”

“Other kids?” Shinta asked and then looked up at his older brother. 

“Err, yeah…” Kai replied after a moment and then began walking through the network of dens until they came to a large one close to the waterfall front entrance. He turned left into the den, and a loud cry of his name came from multiple voices. 

Kiko walked in after him and found nearly fifty pairs of young eyes on her. _Very_ young eyes.

Some of them were fully wolves, while others looked like the humanoid wolf youkai. They were all of them extremely young, with the eldest no older than four or five. It was not what Kiko had been expecting. Even Kohaku, who had prior understanding of what was happening, looked slightly shocked. 

“These are _little_ kids,” Kiko said after recovering from her initial shock, almost immediately pulled into the crowd by an army of curious little hands. “I kind of meant the older ones, like us.” They were all sniffing her, sniffing the air around her, staring up at Kai and Shinta with eyes that demanded explanation even as they seemed to innately trust Kiko and Kohaku enough to touch and lean against them. Shippou’s treatment was one step further as the little wolves began to tug at his tail and limbs playfully.

“Hey, gentle on the tail!” he grumbled, although he was used to this treatment from the twins and Sho.

“These are the _only_ kids the clan has right now,” Kai said. “Well, besides the babies in the other rooms.” 

Shinta rocked on his toes. “All the older kids like me and big brother died,” he said, not quite old enough to know how to word things better.

Kiko stared at them in horror even as she acquiesced to the tiny demands for her to sit down among them. Half a dozen babies clamored into her lap at once, filling her arms to capacity. Several mothers, assigned as caretakers for the day, snickered at her predicament from across the den. 

“It was Naraku,” Shippou supplied to the older girl, who looked utterly confused. “Remember all that bad stuff that Kagome and I sort of told you about? That was one of the _really_ bad things that happened.”

It was strange for Kai to be looking at Kiko right now as she processed this information. As her face crumpled in confusion and fear, he felt his own feelings from the past rush to the front again. The blood-covered path, his friends in shredded and bloodied furs, the elders’ heads rolling down the hill…

He shook his head softly, dispelling the waking nightmares that threatened to pull him back into that fear-filled darkness. A little wolf child was staring at him and he reached down to scoop her up into his arms. She was one of the lighter-colored children, like him, and she giggled instantly as he nuzzled her forehead. Shinta had already run off to the other side of the den, playing with a group of children who were clearly engrossed in some game.

Kohaku watched both Kai and Kiko and then felt that uneasiness rise in him again. He needed to get on the road again. He’d feel more in control of everything there. He wouldn’t be plagued with the images of what Naraku and the Shikon no Tama had left behind, and he could get his family home back into working order in a few years, and then he’d never wake up screaming in the night again. That was how it would work, right? He prayed it was. But regardless, if he stayed here too long and thought about all the individual horrors that didn’t involve him from what Naraku had done, he would never be able to escape.

Kiko’s face, round with youth and framed by her shoulder-length hair, was struggling not to look distraught in front of the toddlers who were staring up at her in various states of awe. None of them had ever smelled a human before, much less seen or touched one. She was a good specimen for their examination and they prodded her in fascination, looking at her teeth (less sharp than theirs) and her hands (softer than their mothers’) and her hair (shinier than anyone they had ever known’s). Finding her ultimately boring, many of them went back to where Shinta and the other children were ramping up their game. The rules seemed to change depending on which child was talking, but Shinta was their clear leader. Kai put down the little girl in his arms when she began to squirm, and as he straightened up, his eyes locked onto Kiko’s.

She suddenly understood this boy wolf. There were things she still didn’t quite get and perhaps never would, but the outline of who Kai was, once fuzzy with the differences of their two kinds and times, became abruptly defined. Kohaku was beginning to make sense too, although she had not yet learned anything about his bloody past. Her head was beginning to spin with the gravity of it all. The risks back then. The things had been at stake. 

And then, clear as a bell in her mind, what Kagome had done. Even knowing without every single detail, the magnitude of her cousin’s ferocity in the face of absolute darkness. 

For the first time in her life, Kiko wished that her surname was Higurashi.


	17. Constant Conversations

“So if Kouga dies, you’re the next leader of the wolf clan?” Shippou asked for clarification. 

“No. Ayame’s the alpha female, so she’d probably just go ahead and take over all the alpha male’s duties too.”

“Oh, so if something happens to both of them, then you?”

“It would depend on who’s left and how the fights for alpha turn out. Well, sometimes there are not even any fights at all—everyone just _chooses_ someone who wants to do it. And if it happens after Momokaku is grown, she would have the best claim to it if she wanted it. Most of the wolves probably wouldn’t even fight her for it out of respect for her family lines.”

The kitsune was confused. “So then _why_ are you training to be the next leader?”

Kai scrunched his nose up. “I’m not. Well, not _exactly_. It’s just that after Naraku wiped so many of us out, Kouga realized he had to make sure there was someone in the middle to bridge the gap between the leftover warriors and the new babies. In case someone else came along and did the same thing Naraku did.” 

“So you’re like...” 

“A failsafe,” Kohaku said, breaking his silence.

“What about you?” Kai asked. “Are you going to rebuild your family?”

Kohaku and Shippou looked at him simultaneously.

“Umm…” he clarified, not realizing the statement was applicable to both of them, “I guess whichever of you wants to go fir—” 

Shippou leapt up, jabbing his thumb into his chest proudly. “Once I get into the top three rankings for kitsune, I’m going to find someone to marry and then we’re going to have as many kids as we can! That way, my father’s bloodline will have lots of new members! And I’ll be so tricky that everyone will respect me and my family!”

“Why just the top three?” Kai asked curiously, putting his chin in his hands, elbows on his knees as he crouched in the tree all three boys were sitting in/around. Kai was highest, with Shippou on a lower branch, and Kohaku standing against the tree’s trunk down at the bottom. “Why not go for first spot?”

“The first kitsune is Inari Okami, everyone knows that!”

“I didn’t know that,” Kai replied simply.

“Well, every _kitsune_ knows that, at least. Inari Okami is our god, and he’s too tricky for anyone to ever beat him.”

“Wolves measure themselves by strength, not trickery,” Kai said.

“So do humans,” Kohaku added. 

Both youkai boys looked down at him. He didn’t notice at first, or at least he pretended not to. But Shippou started making that mischievous face that meant he was close to transforming into something ridiculous to try and persuade him, so Kohaku cut him off at the path before he could do so.     

“…my plans are to go to my family’s lands and rebuild what was there before…” he began, looking as though the words were being forced out of his mouth. 

“Before what?” Shippou pressed.

“…before I destroyed it all,” Kohaku finished.

Kai and Shippou looked at each other, the silence that arose between them suddenly a vast space full of doubt and uneasiness. How to respond to something like that? Kai and Shippou both knew sorrow in droves, but there was something different here in Kohaku’s words. Kai had attacked his own kind at Byakuya’s command, but even he had not committed nearly the sins Kohaku had, even if the older boy was completely innocent of culpability.

“What about a wife?” Shippou asked. “Don’t you want to have some kids who can become taijiya?”

“No,” Kohaku said shortly. “My blood will die with me. Sango is the last link of our family and it’s up to her children whether or not the line survives.”

The three boys fell back into silence as they stared at the village. The final preparations were underway for the day’s Hatsumode festivities, and once the sun began to rise, residents and travelers alike would begin to pour into the southern end of the village, where Kagome and Lady Kaede would conduct blessings and prayers, burn incense for departed souls, distribute new omamori, and burn the old ones. It was a ceremony that only Shippou had experienced fully—Kohaku disliked crowds too much to stay in any village when it was happening and the holiday was completely foreign to Kai. Nevertheless, all three of them felt a certain pull of mystery in this early morning darkness. For Kohaku, this mystery caused apprehension that he couldn’t quite shake, but Shippou and Kai were more excited than anxious about whatever was to come. 

“You two better stay out of sight while the new people are in the village,” Kohaku said after a pause. “The sight of youkai may make them distrust the shrine.”

Shippou, already disappearing in a puff, was cackling. When the smoke cleared, a young feudal lord in elaborate clothing sat among them. He cracked a fan open and chortled behind it. “I can hold this illusion for days, you know. I’ll get lots of special attention if I look like this, too! Hey, maybe even people will give me free food and gifts if they think I’m an important human!”

Kai and Kohaku looked at each other and sighed. 

_____________________

 

“No makeup,” Kagome ordered.

“But Kagomee _eeeeee_ —!”

“You can’t wear makeup with a miko’s outfit. Maybe in the future, but not now.” 

Kiko made a face at her cousin and returned to twisting Rin’s hair into an asymmetrical bun. “Rin doesn’t have to wear miko clothes,” she grumbled.

“That’s because I’m not doing the kagura,” the younger teen said.

“I didn’t _volunteer_ ,” Kiko pouted. “I was forced.” 

“Oh, _please_ ,” Kagome laughed. “I just said it would be a really big help for us to have two miko doing it while Lady Kaede played the drums.” 

“Yeah, but you said it in that way like it’d be a total disgrace on our family if I didn’t…”

“Since when has our family’s honor mattered to you, hmm? Or…do you secretly like being a Higurashi girl now?” Kagome teased, tugging one of the strands of hair that Kiko had intentionally left outside her ponytail. She had never noticed before, but despite the strong resemblance between them as first cousins, Kiko looked nothing like Kikyo. Kikyo’s facial structure had always been just a tad sharper than Kagome’s, but Kiko’s face was considerably rounder than both women’s. The baby fat in her cheeks had not yet fully distributed to its adult placement, so she looked considerably younger than Kagome recalled looking at the same age. And Kikyo had looked even more mature than Kagome at the same age.

“It’s pretty cool how genetics work, huh?” she remarked out loud. The three other girls in the room looked at her, two of them blank-faced and the third only barely understanding what she had said.  
  
“What brought _that_ on?” Kiko asked. She had moved on to trying to get Souten into something that was completely covered up by her armor. The young thunder youkai was putting up a considerable fight, maintaining that you always needed to show your status as a warrior before you showed off a new kimono or a nice obi.

“I was just thinking…” Kagome said, a dreamy smile coming over her face as she realized what a second meaning for her statement could be.

“You’re _so_ weird,” Kiko muttered. “Souten, either wear the armor or don’t, I don’t care, but don’t put it over such a pretty kimono!”

“I will too!” Souten maintained, sticking her tongue out.

“It’s a waste of a pretty kimono to shuck it under all that bulky armor!” Kiko maintained, trying to catch her.

From the other room, Emiko and Etsuko detected a fight in progress and came bursting in, the loud twin ahead of her quiet sister. 

“I WANNA WEAR A PRETTY KIMONO!” Emiko caterwauled. 

“Oh my _god_ ,” Kiko groaned as she noticed that Kouryuu was being dragged around by Sho in the next room. “You guys are a _total_ handful. I am so glad my parents never had another kid.” 

“It’s not so bad having little kids around,” Rin said conciliatorily. “They keep things so lively.”

“Yeah, but at what cost?” Kiko grumbled and sat back, acquiescing to Souten’s will. She fiddled with her own hair for a moment, patting it absent-mindedly as she waited for the other girls to finish dressing, when something seemed to strike her like a giant lightbulb flicking on. She spun on her knees, mouth and eyes wide open, and pointed at Kagome. 

The older woman leapt on her like a leopard on a deer and slapped a hand over her mouth. The two instantly tussled lightly as Kagome dragged Kiko into the next room and slammed the door shut.

“ ** _OH MY GOD!!!_** ” Kiko shrieked the moment Kagome’s hand left her mouth. “ _YOU’RE_ —?!” 

“Shhhh,” Kagome shushed, glancing at the next room over. “It’s not very far along, so I don’t want everyone to know. It’s a less certain thing in this time period, you know.”

“Oh my god,” Kiko repeated. “Oh my _freaking_ god.”

Kagome laughed. “It’s not that big of a deal, Kiko.”

“It’s…it’s a huge deal! That means…that means I’m going to have to start doing your chores and then the twins are going to get so annoying asking when it’s finally coming and…ugh…I don’t know anything about _any_ of that stuff.” 

Kagome’s smile faded into an annoyed expression. “Wow, way to make this all about _you_ ,” she said curtly. “Don’t worry, Rin and Lady Kaede have already taken care of it tons of times. Besides, I’m sure you’ll be home by then, so you won’t even have to worry about it.” 

Sensing that she had angered her cousin, Kiko had the decency to look ashamed. “Sorry…” she began, but the older woman cut her off. 

“Just don’t tell anyone else. Inuyasha and Sango already know, but I’ll decide when I’m ready to tell everyone.” 

“Kagome, I’m so—”

The older woman cut her off with a shake of her head as she stood abruptly and left the room. Kiko stared after her, feeling the knot in the pit of her stomach suddenly become like a rock.

______________________

 

“It’s what?”

“Undead,” Junko repeated, arms folded over her chest. “My dad did some tests on it, trying to figure out where it came from, but none of the snake clans around here recognized its face. So he tested the remains themselves to see if he could find something. But that’s where it got weird—the tissue was coming back as if it had been dead for a few decades. So I went to the public records office and looked up all the snakes born about thirty or forty years ago.” She pulled a photo from her pocket and handed it over to Souta, who examined it closely. 

“That’s it. I’ll never forget that face,” Souta said quietly.

“That’s the last living picture of it before it died at the hands of a human. That was swept under the rug too, but I managed to find out that a drunken priest out in the country wandered into the woods and practiced his abilities on the first youkai he found." 

“That’s horrible,” Hitomaru whispered.

“So it’s been dead for years. Which means it had to come back from the dead?” Souta continued.

Junko nodded. “There are lots of ways to reanimate bodies, but it’s weird that it was in such good shape. Snakes typically burn their dead, and the ashes are never stored in one place. There’s no way it could have been so complete, unless the reanimation was more than just a restoration of the soul to remains.”

“What do you think happened, then?” Hitomaru asked.

The demon hunter pursed her lips. “Given what it said to Souta and his cousin before it attacked them, it was looking for someone with power. Who, I can’t be certain, but I’d imagine Kagome. She’s the most powerful member of the Higurashis. My dad found…well, sulfur…it was on the snake’s scales, sort of wedged in there as if it had gotten transferred as the snake crawled.” 

“Sulfur?” Hitomaru repeated. “You can’t think—”

“It would explain the complete body,” Junko answered quickly. “It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, given the power of deities that stay down there." 

“Uhh, down where?” Souta chimed in. “I mean, it sounds like you’re talking about Hell. Which can’t be possible, right? It couldn’t have come from Hell. That’s _ridiculous_.”

“Not Hell as you probably think of it,” Junko murmured, rubbing the back of her neck. “But the underworld, a separate realm of existence that many souls pass to, is very real. With the right power and motive, bringing back a weak demon would be no big issue. There are barriers in place to keep more powerful entities trapped inside, but weaker workers can pass into our realm easily enough, so why not a snake too?”

“But why?” Souta insisted. “Why would someone send a snake from…from the underworld to try and find my sister?" 

Junko shook her head. “That’s what I don’t get either. Time doesn’t flow quite the same there, so anyone who was looking for Kagome would have to had known she wasn’t in the modern era anymore…” 

Hitomaru shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “Unless the snake was some sort of messenger.” 

Junko and Souta looked up at him.

“Well, think about it. Snakes are traditionally villains, even among other youkai. Susanoo-no-Mikoto defeated Yamata no Orochi and pulled Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi from his tail. I mean, it makes sense if someone was trying to send a malevolent message, to use a snake to do it.”

“So then,” Souta murmured, expression darkening. “What’s the message?”


	18. Hatsumode

Hatsumode was well underway even before the sun had fully risen. Local merchants and craftsmen had set up stands along the southern road to the village shrine, while the restaurants had already opened their doors and were letting the smells of their offerings lure travelers in. The small shrine itself was covered in the decorations that Lady Kaede and the others had been making for weeks—paper talismans and streamers hung from every corner, while the various offering areas were already alight with candles and colored with gifts to the gods. A fire in the main building’s rooms served as the place to burn last year’s omamori, while new ones could be purchased in the next room over, where Kagome and Lady Kaede would spend most of their time during the day. Rin and Kiko were expected to welcome guests, keep the paths swept, and take care of any small issues that arose throughout the day while the older women conducted prayers and blessings.

It wasn’t the Higurashi Shrine, though.

This shrine, small and encompassing almost no land, would be lost to time somewhere in the next five hundred years. What would become the Higurashi Shrine was still just grass and trees surrounding the Bone Eater’s Well. This small place and the work they would do this day would not stand the test of time. It was a disquieting thought to Kiko, one that bounced around in her mind endlessly as she finished sweeping up the short stairs up to the shrine’s main building.

Rin had been watching her friend’s expression slowly deepen from her own spot securing paper streamers around a small sapling on the shrine grounds. The bond between them had not been instantaneous, and indeed at times Kiko’s immaturities made her a little trying for anyone to be around (even patient Rin), but there was already something there strong enough for her to be able to read the older girl’s more concealed moods. 

“Everything okay?” she called out. The older girl looked over at her, then down at her broom.

“I’m just thinking…” Kiko murmured. Rin moved in, tightening the ribbon holding the girl’s short hair back with a soft tug.

“Thinking about what?” she prodded gently.

“Death, I guess.”

Rin blinked. “That’s…a little dark.”

“I just mean, like,” Kiko raised her free hand up to try and soften her words a little. But as she thought of it, there was no good way to say what she was thinking about without it being completely and utterly macabre. “Ugh, I don’t know how to put it.” 

“That this shrine will be gone by the time you’re from?” 

Kiko spun around in shock. “W-what? How did you—?”

“Kagome mentions it every so often,” Rin smiled tenderly. “She really loves this place, so…I think it makes her sad to know that it won’t be around in the future. You know, you two aren’t that different where it really matters.”

Kiko snorted softly. “Don’t tease me. She and I are nothing alike. I never even liked her all that much when I was a kid. Her dad, my uncle, he was the eldest son, so her family got to live in the shrine. But my mom married into a family with a little more money, so we never spent much time with them, except at holidays.”

“Ahh,” Rin nodded. “That explains a lot. So you’re a little bit spoiled, huh?”

Kiko shot her a dirty look.

“I’m mostly kidding! But it makes sense that if her life was pretty different from yours, that you’d have a hard time relating to her. Kagome’s always been mature for her age, I think. Whenever Lord Sesshoumaru and I would run into her and the rest of the group, I always thought she seemed like the perfect big sister. I think Shippou and Kohaku would agree too. Everyone loves her. Even Lord Sesshoumaru is a little bit fond of her, I think. But he’d never admit it, in a million years.”  
  
The older girl glanced over at her, slightly envious of the praise being given to her cousin from someone she considered a close friend. She pretended to brush a nearby step for a moment and then coughed lightly. “So…what does everyone think about me?”

Rin giggled. “Well, you’re very transparent, that’s for sure!” 

Kiko puffed out her cheeks and swiped at Rin with her broom’s bristles. The younger girl dodged it, laughing. 

“Well, Kohaku and Kai have no clue how to handle you, but that’s because they don’t hang out with a lot of girls our age. The rest of us think of you as…a little sister, I think. To be honest, you and Souten have a lot in common.” 

“Oh _great_ ,” Kiko groaned. “Everyone thinks I’m a _brat_.” 

Rin shrugged with a smile. “That’s not so bad, though. It means you have room to grow! That’s the good thing about being alive—there’s always something you can improve about yourself.”

Kiko regarded her carefully. “So then what do _you_ want to improve about yourself?”

Rin blinked. “Ahh…uhh…let’s see…hey, weren’t we supposed to hang more lanterns outside the front gate?”

“You _cheater_! You can’t hem and haw your way out of it! Tell me!”

“I’ll go get some from the main building! You’ve got to get ready for the kagura!” Rin said as she began to run away from the older girl, putting that appeasing smile back on her face. 

“YOU CHEATER!!! YOU SNEAK!!! COME BACK HEREEEEEE—” Kiko’s voice trailed after her as she ran.

_______________________

 

Chuuro stared up at Souta with some degree of shock on his wizened features. The god recovered quickly enough, scratching inside his ear with his pinky in a show of nonchalance.

“You remembered which door led back to my place,” he said half-amusedly. 

Souta, mouth in a tight line, nodded. “It was enchanted, wasn’t it? Junko and Hitomaru couldn’t seem to remember where it was at all. Even Kirara got confused when we came near here.”

The god grinned. “You’re a very special boy, Higurashi Souta. Not a powerful one, no. But _special_ , indeed.”

“I want to know if that snake that attacked me and my cousin was from the underworld.” 

“Whoo, boy,” Chuuro whistled under his breath. “Not one for small talk, are you?”

“You said I needed to wait one week.”

“And it’s been two days.” 

“But I’m not asking about my cousin, I’m asking about the underworld. You’re the god of passages, right? So you’d know about the doorway between the underworld and ours.”

Chuuro snapped his fingers at Souta in a ‘you got it’ gesture. “That’s how I got sucked into this whole thing in the first place. Desecration of the divine paths that are in place. I noticed it hundreds of years ago, mentioned it to the higher-ups, and then got twisted into doing their dirty work. They’ve got all those rules in place so that they can’t come down here and mess with humans any more. They make a mess when they do. You do _not_ want temperamental gods wandering around fighting each other and taking offense to every little thing and pouting for centuries on end. They do better when they’re confined to the higher realms and the weaker kami like me can handle the day-to-day stuff.” 

Souta frowned. “I need you to tell me why the snake was looking for my cousin.”

Chuuro mirrored his expression. “You’re pushing it, _boy_. I already told you more than I needed to. What makes you think—”

“Koi-koi,” Souta said, cutting him off. 

“ _What?_ ”

“I want to play koi-koi with you. If I win, you just have to tell me why the snake was looking for Kagome. If you win, you can send me to pocket dimension or a deserted island or whatever for the rest of the week.” 

“How about I just do that anyway and send you there forever? Impudent little brat.”

“Let’s just say I’m taking a page from my cousin’s playbook,” Souta replied. “Do you accept?

The god watched him for a moment. Souta felt a sudden pressure on all sides, threatening to pull him into pieces if it increased further. The hair on his arms rose in fear and goosebumps rose across his neck, but his face remained focused. The doors and windows covering the god’s four walled apartment suddenly all flew open, but instead of their usual varied destinations, each showcased only darkness beyond its frame. Chuuro himself was becoming hard to focus on, the outlines of his body blurring as he stared at Souta. His eyes were gateways, too, Souta realized, but he couldn’t tell where they led, only that they too would suck him in if he didn’t look past them. It was a strange thought that bloomed in his head:

‘ _Look past it all_.’

Souta obeyed, his eyes focusing beyond the god’s shifting form as it twisted and grew, the doors as they displaced darkness and despair, and set his jaw. 

In an instant, the room went still, the doors and windows returning to their usual closed positions, and Chuuro looking away, grinning as he rubbed his hand over his chin.

“A special boy, indeed,” he repeated to himself and then looked back at Souta. “I accept your offer, Higurashi Souta. Fetch those hanafuda cards over there and let’s begin.” 

Souta’s stoicism broke in a simple wave of excitement and he grinned victoriously.

_______________________

 

In the left hand, the sakaki and three lines of streamers. In the right, the bells. The cousins stood a few feet apart, backs to the crowd gathered behind them. They stretched up in unison, praying up to the gods above and then down to those below.

The first drum beat. One heavy shake of the bells. One wave of the sakaki branch.

The flute joined in now, weak and fluttering. It was their hearts too, weak and fluttering, that were for the kami to see. They took two steps back and suddenly the unison between them was broken. They moved independently of one another, yet there was a balance to each girl’s moves—when Kagome grew still, Kiko’s body began to spin and flutter, and as her fervor died, Kagome’s grew anew. Over their miko’s clothing, they wore long ceremonial pieces with intricate designs that fluttered with each movement. The bells were being shaken now with zeal and with their noise came occasional cries from the worshippers. 

Kiko had never felt the spirit of a kami possess her, as the kagura was supposed to represent, so her movements were mostly based on what her grandpa had taught—basic steps meant to impart awe in the guests’ eyes and faith within their hearts. He had said once that that was truly the best way to embody a kami. Kiko glanced at her cousin, wondering if Kagome had ever gotten the same speech. Kagome’s face was open and joyous, but that wasn’t too far from her norm. It was the way that her eyes remained cast upward that intrigued Kiko. What was she praying for? The health of her husband and unborn child? Well wishes upon the guests of the shrine? A nice, sunny day to melt the muddy, leftover snow from last week’s accumulation? 

Something in Kiko’s heart felt as though it were all those things and more. Kagome suddenly seemed less of a Shinto priestess as a Buddhist Kannon, imbuing every step with a peaceful, protective power. 

Yet again, Kiko felt her cousin’s power as if it were a tangible thing that lingered just outside the reach of her own fingertips. Her kagura shifted, wanting to be possessed by this energy, this spirit, and she moved with renewed enthusiasm, channeling not _a_ spirit but rather a desire _for_ spirit, a craving to grow from what she was as a spoiled, little sister into one who protected others in spite of the risk.

Her heart was pounding in her chest with the beat of the drum, and then it accelerated beyond that, until she was certain it would burst from her chest and continue dancing without her. It was early morning, but she looked up to the sky and saw the night sky still fighting for its visibility, the moon and brightest stars still shining down on all of them.  

Suddenly, the drums were winding down and the bells began to soften. Kiko and Kagome, in unison once again, crashed onto the floor with practiced grace, bowing deeply at the feet of the shrine in front of them. The audience behind them began to clap softly, prayers coming out in hushed voices. Offerings were appearing along the line that separated the miko from the crowd, money and flowers, little shiny trinkets and dulled, handmade wooden carvings.

Kiko pressed her forehead against the hardwood, panting softly as sweat dripped from her bangs. Her heart’s pounding decreased with each breath, until it no longer felt mutinous in her body. By her side, Kagome was glancing over at her. She returned the gaze after a moment, flinching in surprise when her cousin reached over and gave her hand a tight squeeze. 

There would be time to apologize properly later, when the crowds departed, but it was there between them, a tenuous understanding of one another, of the strengths of one and the flaws of the other.

_______________________

  

Kai and Shippou watched the kagura from atop a nearby building. Shippou’s disguise, while undetected as such, had elicited a little _too_ much interest from the villagers and travelers, and he found himself with exactly seven offers of farmer’s daughter’s hands in marriage before he gave it up completely and settled for joining the young wolf youkai in his rooftop hiding place.

“You could’ve been a farmer instead,” Kai said.

Shippou snorted. “It’s a good thing you don’t know how to transform. You’d be totally uninspired.”

Kai half-smiled at him, not really taking that as an insult. Shippou was rather glad about this, because avoiding Inuyasha’s blows had become easy enough, but Kai had a speed advantage that made him a potentially difficult subject for teasing.

“What do you think they do that for?” The older wolf asked. 

“Huh? The kagura? It’s a religious thing. Kagome says it’s like the gods are supposed to take you over and use your body to speak to the audience through dance.” 

The wolf didn’t reply, attention focused instead on the thatch covering the roof they sat on. He scraped it lightly with his fingernail, pulling a piece of it up. Human houses were strange. They didn’t use the perfectly good caves nearby as dens, but insisted on nearly replicating them out in the open elements. Kouga had once said humans were all the most confusing creatures in existence.

“ _You know where you stand with a youkai_ ,” he had said, looking out over Kaede’s village from a hilltop one day after a hunting trip. “ _And you’ll never meet a kami, so you don’t have to even worry about how they think. But humans—they’re a total mystery. Emotional as shit, dumb as hell, and completely unaware of what it is they **really** need._ ”

Down below the two boys and slightly off to the right, Rin and Kohaku were sitting on the steps of a smaller shrine building, watching the kagura with interest. Kai had noticed that the girl was not particularly comfortable around him, but that made enough sense. Wolf youkai were not overly trusted by most humans, and Kai wasn’t unfamiliar with seeing humans run away at the sight of him and his kind. The few humans they ran across while hunting would often plead for their lives, unaware that Kouga had banned the killing of humans years back after meeting Kagome.

Kiko was coming down from the stage area, her arms waving in excitement at Rin and Kohaku, her face flushed. She stopped short, striking a pose in front of Kohaku.

“Don’t I look cute today, Kohaku?” she demanded.

Kohaku looked uncomfortable. “Umm…” 

“Oh jeez,” she laughed, slapping him with her long, white sleeve, “I’m just picking on you. You have to learn how to handle women better, like Lord Sesshoumaru.”

“Have you…ever seen Lord Sesshoumaru talk to a woman?” Kohaku asked.

“Minor detail,” Kiko said a shrug. “A woman’s heart knows when it see someone who would treat it right.”

Rin found this particularly funny and stifled her giggles behind her hands. Kiko narrowed her eyes at her. 

“Don’t think I haven’t forgotten, young lady,” she mumbled and Rin grinned apologetically.

“KIKO! RIN!” a bossy voice called out, and Souten came stomping over, Emiko and Etsuko at her heels. “We need money to buy candy.” She held out her hand, explanation over.

“Huh?” Kiko sneered. “Who said I have any? And why would I give it to _you_?”

Souten wiggled her hand, raising an eyebrow. “Kagome said you had to keep an eye on me, didn’t she? That means you have to make sure I don’t get into trouble, and I can’t guarantee that I won’t start shocking humans if I don’t get candy right now.”

Kiko gnashed her teeth, fighting back the urge to continue the argument, and started searching her pockets for the small amount of coins she had stocked inside one of them.

“Thank you!” Souten said, previous threat forgotten as she took the coins and ran with the twins back towards the candy stand. 

“Bamboozled by a sneaky little brat,” Kiko grunted, kicking her legs in frustration. The red hakama flapped around her, giving the impression of wind where there was none. Rin giggled lightly.

“Don’t even _say_ what you’re thinking,” Kiko muttered lowly. Rin’s laughter increased until the girl was nearly doubled over laughing. Kohaku stared between the two in total confusion. Girls, it would appear, were becoming a complete mystery to him. 

_____________________

 

Later in the day, Miroku was panting as he managed to break through the crowd surrounding the small shrine. In his arms, a mass of scrolls and papers lay half-unraveled and entangled in one another, while Inuyasha moved ahead of him, pushing people out of the way when they didn’t immediately respond to his request to move. Gentle or patient, Inuyasha was clearly not in the mood to be. Kagome spotted them first, motioning to Sango who was praying at a nearby shrine to look over. The four converged where Kagome sat, pausing her meetings with a nearby village leader who hoped to receive the shrine’s blessing on a new city hall that would be built shortly. 

“I think I may have found something while doing some research on Izanami and her followers,” Miroku said the moment they were all together, arranging the papers in his arms across the floor. Kagome looked at the scrolls, each depicting various events in Japanese mythology. Inuyasha and Sango were looking too, and the hanyou pointed at one picture in particular—one portraying the marriage of Izanami-no-Mikoto and Izanagi-no-Mikoto.

“Do you recognize that?” the hanyou asked his wife. Kagome’s brow furrowed.

“It looks like…the pillar we saw at the top of Souten’s castle?” 

“Kin and I saw a similar one in the northern mountains, in the center of where the tengu village had been,” Inuyasha said. 

“When Izanami and Izanagi were married, they constructed these columns to dedicate their vows to heaven. Ame-no-Mihashira, they’re called. The Pillars of Heaven.” 

“The pillar in Souten’s castle was used to summon Raijin,” Sango remembered. “So then…the northern pillar could have summoned Yomotsu-Shikome? She’s a spirit of death and decay, so it makes sense that death and torture could summon her, just as lightning storm during a massacre of humans summoned Raijin.”

Miroku nodded at his wife. “These pillars are direct links to other realms. Used correctly, they could summon any of the deities prohibited from coming to our realm.” 

“So Izanami’s followers are being summoned here,” Kagome said. “But then what? Will she come, too?”

Miroku shook his head. “I’m not sure. The most powerful of the gods are kept from entering our realm physically by very powerful heavenly seals they put in place themselves. I don’t think it would be as simple for her to be summoned like Yomotsu-Shikome and Raijin. I think there would have to be more.” 

“More?” Sango asked. 

“Something strong enough to break the heavenly seals keeping her in the underworld. I don’t know what that could be, but the weaker kami that are allowed to come to this realm might be able to give us a clue.”

“Suijin,” Kagome said instantly. “She’s a goddess and she’ll definitely want to help. We can go see her tonight, after all the people visiting the shrine are gone.”     

Sango nodded, rising to her feet. “I’ll prepare Kirara and get some supplies ready while you finish up here with the visitors. Someone should tell Lady Kaede what’s going on.”

“I can do that,” Inuyasha offered. “She’s just a few doors down anyway.”

“I’ll tell the rest of the children too,” Miroku proposed. “Kohaku can watch the smaller children and Kai will probably want to tell Kouga.”

“Okay,” Kagome said. “We’ll plan to meet at the edge of the village after dark. That gives us a few hours to get ready. I’ll try and finish up these prayers and omamori as fast as I can.” Miroku and Sango took their leave quickly, rushing in opposite directions as they left.

“You know,” Inuyasha said, smirking before he left as well, “for once, I feel like we’re actually on top of something before it goes downhill.”

Kagome looked up at him, her smile undeniably warm despite the new, daunting information. “I absolutely agree.”

_____________________

 

High above the village, a lone, puffy cloud lingered. By itself, it seemed innocuous, adrift alongside wispy clouds that held no malice. It floated slowly, often making loops in its path as the god sitting inside watched the various humans come in and out of the village. Raijin did not understand most human behavior, for what god would care about the actions of ants? Yet he was drawn to these moments of worship, as were most kami. Did they not understand that no amount of prayer would protect them from the whims of the gods? Entirely foolish, humans were, and only good in death, their souls feeding the stacks of the underworld.

He had been making it for hours. There was no youki within it, so he knew he was in no danger of the priestess or her husband sensing him. It was the purest energy of the gods, imperceptible by the senses of most humans. The seal twisted and turned in his palms, crafting itself to his lightning magic. He had six bars, but he needed eight—the seal worked best in eights. It would not be permanent, but it would slow them down—it was not Kyuzetsu’s concern with the priestess that bothered him, but rather Izanami’s. Her voice never left his ears, even in this realm, and he could hear her whispering even now. 

 _The Higurashi line was dangerous_. 

They needed more time, but she could not risk Raijin losing a battle to any of the humans or their youkai allies. The priestess had destroyed the Shikon no Tama—she was more resourceful than she appeared. ‘ ** _Atrophy over action for now, Raijin_** ,’ she whispered. He could almost smell her rotted tongue as it curved over the sounds in his name.

Atrophy over action, indeed. They would waste away in this cage. Raijin was less certain of the miko’s powers, but he knew his own. These eight bars, once completed, would wither any chance they had ever had of stopping Izanami. The seventh bar began to appear, slowly, crackling in his palms.

Raijin smiled. The sun was descending in the sky.


	19. A Gift, A Curse

Miroku had found Kohaku quickly enough and informed him of what was happening, but the rest of the children, youkai included, were wandering around the numerous stands along the village’s main road, surveying different foods and inspecting various trinkets with absolutely no clue of what was developing around them. Souten had found Shippou easily enough in the fox’s rooftop hiding place and had dragged him out into public. Between the minor illusions both were able to use to disguise themselves, it was impossible to tell that the two children running underfoot were youkai, not humans. The visitors paid them little mind, even as they bickered over a skewer of meat and ended up fighting when it dropped to the ground. Rin had scooped them both up, giving them each their own skewer, and the fight was instantly forgotten. Kai, unable to disguise himself and not particularly interested in even trying, was mostly just watching. Kiko had snuck onto a stool and managed to hand him one of the same skewers the younger youkai were devouring and he too ate it, although in smaller, more thoughtful bites.

Humans overcooked their meat to the extreme, he thought with a certain amount of disgust, but he had grown up in enough times of hardship to know never to waste food.

Rin was examining a small wooden doll stand with Kiko right beside her. The two girls had been talking the entire time, mostly about who each doll looked like, occasionally breaking into laughter when a comparison seemed particularly truthful. Souten and Shippou both poked their heads in to see what all the fuss was about and ended up finding one doll whose scowl was eerily similar to Inuyasha’s.

“I’m buying it,” Shippou said adamantly. “I’m buying it and whenever he says something grumpy, I’m going to make it talk like him.” 

“That would make him sooooo angry,” Rin giggled.

“Do it,” Souten urged, and so the kitsune began to dig through his small bag for money. Kai laid back on the thatch roof, enjoying the fading winter sun as night drew closer and closer. He’d head back home once most of the humans were gone and there was no risk of being tracked back to his clan’s lands. But for now, with a belly full of warm (if not charred) meat, Kai considered taking a brief nap.

Kiko watched Shippou as he began to barter with the wooden doll dealer, finding her interest growing stale quickly. Chewing absently on her last piece of skewered beef, she looked around the stalls, moving away from the group to do so. Most of the stalls were already low on wares—the visitors were generous with their business and their coin—but a few still had items remaining. One stand held small iron pieces to be used around the home, while another had bamboo wind chimes to announce the arrival of wind spirits. Another yet held beautiful lacquer bowls, which were definitely outside Kiko’s remaining budget. 

As she turned to survey the other side, her eye caught on a small stall a bit further out than the others. It was dimly light, with only the basic structure of a covered area and a large wooden tub on the ground. A man was sitting on a short stool, winding what looked to be fishing line around a bamboo pole. 

Curiosity piqued, Kiko moved closer. The man was clearly a fisherman from further out than most of the visitors, and his clothing seemed particularly out of place given the temperature. He was winding his line carefully through the eye of a small hook, tying it in several places before using his teeth to cut it. He tucked the hook into a small notch in the bamboo, then glanced up at Kiko as she approached. 

“Ahh, a customer,” he grinned. His hair was shaggy and his beard shaggier yet, but his eyes were kind. Kiko looked down into the tub at his feet and saw swirls of white, red, and black. 

“Goldfish!” she exclaimed, rather childishly, squatting down to get a better look at them. The fisherman’s smile widened.

“They’re cute, huh? Why don’t you give them some of this?” He held out his hand, revealing a small stack of bread crumbs. Kiko took them eagerly, not noticing the dirtiness of his hands against the cleanliness of hers, and gingerly dropped some of the crumbs into the water. Instantly, the little goldfish all diverted their attention up, round mouths pushing and gasping for more food.

“So _cute_!” Kiko squealed, a teenage girl to her core. “Are you selling them?” 

The fisherman tilted his head. “Not per se. I prefer to do more of a trading sort of thing. Do you have something you could trade for one?” 

Kiko glanced around herself, finding nothing of note. “Not really,” she murmured in disappointment. She looked up at him, finding herself drawn to the necklace he wore. It was a loose strand of knotted fishing line, covered in shark’s teeth, with a glowing blue gem strung in the center.

“Fished it right out of the ocean,” the fisherman explained, noticing her gaze. “But I tell you what, Tsukiko. I think I know the perfect thing for you to trade me for one of these little guys.”

Kiko, feeling a little fuzzy in the head and not noticing that the stranger knew her full name, looked down at the water. “What is it?”

“Good favor.”

She looked back up at him.

“The world is full of treaties and agreements, you know. So that’s what you can give me. Your word that you will keep my master in your good faith.” 

“Who’s your master?” Kiko asked, almost stupidly. 

“Susanoo-no-Mikoto.”

Kiko snorted. “Okay. Sure thing, man.”

“You mean it?” he said, taking her completely at her word. “You’ll consider Lord Susanoo an ally, not an enemy?”

“Why would I consider him an enemy anyway?” Kiko said, eyebrow raised skeptically. “He did defeat Yamata no Orochi, after all. He’s a good guy.” Not that Kiko believed any of that fairytale stuff. She was pretty sure this guy was just a loon. But the goldfish were awfully pretty…so she’d go along with whatever craziness he spouted off. 

“That’s right! I _knew_ you wouldn’t get caught up in the age-old rivalry,” the fisherman cheered, slapping his knees in excitement. “Okay then, go ahead and pick one out! Consider it a gift from Susanoo himself.”

“Oh boy,” Kiko said half-sarcastically, but she was already craning over the tub, examining all the goldfish inside. All of them were suddenly looking at her, which seemed a very strange thing for goldfish to do, but Kiko’s head was only halfway processing the bizarre nature of this entire situation in the first place. Each one was brightly colored, but no two were the same. Some were speckled, others a single color, but they were all extremely bright-eyed as they gazed up at her. She felt her hand reach into the water, compelled by something beyond her own conscious thought. The one she had chosen was nearly all white with a long, luxurious tail and fins. In the center of its forehead was a massive disc of red scales.

“That coloring’s called tencho,” the fisherman said as the fish swam into Kiko’s palm and continued staring up at her. “Her name is Sekichu.”

“Sekichu,” Kiko repeated as she pulled the goldfish out of the water. Instead of going limp and gasping for air like other fish, the little tencho goldfish shook off the water coating her scales and took to the air, flying around Kiko’s head as if she were still in the water. “Uhh,” Kiko began, brain heavy and dumb. “That goldfish is _flying_.”

“That’s because it’s a celestial attendant, not a goldfish,” the fisherman chuckled. “You’ll get used to it.”

“Wait a min—” Kiko said suddenly, feeling her brain clear like fog dissipating in the sun as she looked up at him. But the fisherman was already fading away into the night as it settled on the village. The little attendant, Sekichu, swirled around Kiko’s head a few more times as she looked around to see where the fisherman had gone and then settled into the collar of her clothing, nuzzling her neck gently.

“That _tickles_ ,” Kiko muttered, reaching over and pulling the little fish out. It sat between her palms, staring up at her with a look of pure adoration. “You are really…man, you’re just **_so_** cute. I have no clue what's going on, but you can stay with me, if you want, Sekichu.”

The little fish trilled and slammed into her cheek, rubbing against it eagerly. Kiko giggled and stood up, the attendant following after her.

“I can’t wait to see what Kagome says,” Kiko grinned. “I bet she will be so jealous that I have a…well, whatever you are.” A thought struck her then, and she stopped mid-step, glancing back at where the stall had been. “Oh man, I hope making a deal with that guy wasn’t a bad idea…”

______________________

 

“That,” Inuyasha said, taking a deep breath to calm himself, “was a _terrible_ idea! What were you thinking? Who knows who you were actually talking to!” 

Kiko squared her shoulders, holding Sekichu firmly in her hands. Her glower at the moment was particularly impressive, Rin thought, as she watched the two argue.

“I’m not giving her up! She likes me!”

“Yeah, well, she’s about the only one right now!”

“ _Inuyasha_ , be nice,” Kagome chastised from where she was helping Sango put another bag across Kirara’s back.

Kiko stuck her tongue out at the hanyou, who looked close to ripping it out of her mouth. 

“Kagome, will you please tell her how _stupid_ that was?!”

Kiko looked over at her cousin, who paused. 

“It wasn’t smart, Kiko,” Kagome agreed. “But we can’t do anything about it until we’re back from Suijin’s.   So until then, don’t talk to any strangers and _certainly_ don’t make any more deals with them.”

“Kohaku is in charge,” Inuyasha said, arms crossed over his chest. “He’s about the only one of you I can trust not to do anything stupid while we’re gone.”

The young demon hunter coughed nervously, sensing Kiko’s glower suddenly redirect to him. He was off to the side, ushering his nieces and nephew as they saw their parents off. Neither of the twins seemed particularly bothered, both eager to know what kind of demons their parents would be off fighting, but Sho had the good sense to cry a little, earning him extra affection from Sango.

“If you need anything, ask Lady Kaede. If something bad happens, go to Kouga,” Kagome said. “Don’t leave the village otherwise.” 

Annoyed at the scolding Inuyasha had given her, Kiko grunted a reluctant agreement and turned to face the other children. Kai was off in the distance, sitting on the ground and waiting for the main group to leave so he could return to his home with an update for Kouga. Shippou would be going as well, but Souten was specifically forbidden. She had thrown a literal thunderstorm in the main room when told this, against Kouryuu’s attempts to calm her, but it had faded quickly enough, and now she just remained by Rin’s legs, glaring at Shippou in jealousy. Rin, not really needing directions on how to be a good child, waited off to the side for the goodbyes to end. Kiko moved to her side, still holding Sekichu in her hands. The small fish was looking about eagerly, as if memorizing each face around her to memory.

“That thing _is_ pretty cute,” Rin cooed and Souten stretched up on her toes to look at it as well.

“ _Right_? Inuyasha’s just a big grump,” Kiko muttered. 

“Kid, I can _hear_ you,” Inuyasha growled. 

Souten’s eyes took in the goldfish for only a moment before she suddenly looked up at the sky, squinting. “Guys,” she said.

“I don’t _care_ if you can,” Kiko sneered. “I’m surprised those big ol’ dog ears are even useful, as full as they are with sh—” 

“ _GUYS_!!!” Souten screamed as the night sky, obscured partially by clouds, suddenly went electric. Sango and Miroku instinctively wrapped around their children, protecting them with their own bodies, while Inuyasha moved to cover Kagome. There were bars slamming into the ground on the other side of the village, each one making a horrible thunderous noise as it did so. One, then two, then three and four simultaneously. It was happening so fast that Kiko didn’t have time to process anything else but the fear that sent her heart into her throat. Kagome, having more sense and experience than that, shoved the younger girl out of the way as the bars came crashing down around them.

A shockwave of dust and smoke filled the air instantly and silence fell over the group as it cleared. Eight bars, deeply placed in the ground and crackling with electricity, created a network of smaller lightning bolts that caged in the entire village.

And the adults within. 

Kohaku was already on his feet, his bone hook in his hand, as the smoke revealed his sister and brother-in-law to be on the inside of the barrier. Their three children still sat in their arms, now all terrified and crying. Rin coughed from where she had fallen in the shockwave, looking up to see Souten still standing and staring up at the sky. Shippou had managed to grab a hold of Kirara when the lightning struck, but both youkai had ended up outside, not inside, the electric dome. Kai was at their side instantly, helping Rin and Shippou to their feet and looking at the barrier in shock.

It stretched hundreds of feet into the air and atop it was Raijin. He was grinning. 

“ **You** **bastard**!” Inuyasha yelled from where he and Kagome had fallen back as the lightning crashed in front of them, trapping them inside the barrier. In an instant, he had unsheathed Tessaiga and was charging upwards. But as his sword made contact with the electric wall, a powerful current surged through him and sent him crashing back to the ground. Kagome screamed and ran for him.

Kiko, shaking the haze out of her head, realized that Kagome had pushed her just outside of the barrier. In fact, one bar sizzled dangerously near her feet, and she leapt away in horror.

Inuyasha was feebly stirring, but all eyes were on Raijin. When he began to laugh, it sounded like thunder from miles away. 

“It’s a celestial barrier,” Miroku growled as the talismans he thrown at the walls in question bounced off harmlessly. Sho trembled in his arms. “He’s trapped us in here to keep us from finding a way to stop him, I’d be willing to bet.”

Sango had each of the twins under her arms and was holding them tightly. “Miroku, the children…is it safe for them to be in here with us?” 

“So long as it’s a cage and not something else,” Miroku said darkly. Kohaku, hearing this, suddenly launched his bone weapon at the electric wall. It bounced off harmlessly, but when followed that with a slice of his wrist’s hidden knife, the current burnt through his thin sleeves and scorched the skin underneath. He yelped in pain and held his burnt wrist as he glared up at the lightning god. Rin rushed towards him, trying to survey the damage. 

The lightning god was looking down at Souten. “ ** _I’m hungry_** ,” he announced suddenly. “ ** _I’m ready to consume you now, child._** ”

Souten tensed and everyone’s voices joined in a communal scream when the lightning god suddenly appeared before those outside the barrier. Raijin held out his hand, the fingertips crackling ominously, but as he made to grab Souten, a surge of water slammed into him. It nearly knocked him off his feet, but he managed to stay upright, turning to glare at the little fish sending the torrent his way.

Kiko, holding Sekichu away from her body as the attendant shot out a veritable jet of water, looked just as surprised as anyone. The fish had tripled in size suddenly and was making an angry noise as it attacked Raijin.

“ ** _A celestial attendant?_** ” Raijin growled. “ ** _Damned Susanoo._** ” He surveyed the inhabitants of the barrier versus those outside it and suddenly flew upwards to avoid the watery blast. Souten ran behind Kiko, clutching the older girl’s hakama in terror. “ ** _A group of children scares me not._** ”

“Yeah well,” Shippou yelled, “you better be scared! Inuyasha and Kagome are going to break out of that thing and whoop your as—” 

“Maybe let’s _not_ provoke the freaking lightning god!!!” Kiko squealed through clenched teeth as Sekichu stopped spraying water and began observing Raijin’s movements.

Raijin’s grin was terrible. “ ** _I'm looking forward to it, if it ever happens._** ”  He seemed to pause suddenly, as if listening to someone else talk, then nodded and disappeared in a crack of thunder and lightning.

And that was when everyone realized that they were _really_ in trouble.


	20. The Children's Crusade

Immediately after Raijin’s departure, chaos descended upon the village. Several villagers had electrocuted themselves before the reality of what was happening seemed to catch on, and then mass hysteria set in. Lady Kaede had come running from the shrine, followed shortly by the other village leaders. Several were already armed, but upon seeing the charred bodies of the villagers and Inuyasha’s feebly stirring form in Kagome’s arms, the fight in their eyes seemed to fade instantly. 

‘ _Animals in a cage,_ ’ Kai thought grimly. After the warriors had died, the elders and children in his clan had resorted to cages to catch much of their meat. It was no way for a wolf clan to live, the prouder elders had whispered, but the children’s cries for food had become too sorrowful to ignore. As one of the older kids, Kai had often been the one assigned to clearing out traps laid out the night before. Any animals trapped within would become a meal during the day as the survivors fled Naraku and his followers.

If not mangled in the teeth of the traps or strangled by the nets, the animals’ eyes would betray their terror as he approached. He would end it as quickly as he could—that was the way of wolves, don’t torture, don’t cause undue harm—but the look in their eyes would follow him for the rest of the day. He had seen that look on the faces of the dead warriors, too, before he and the others had been forced to flee. And again, when Byakuya and the badger youkai had ripped his friends and the elders to shreds. Kai shook that memory out of his head again, something he had to do far too often as of late.

Over to the side, Sango and Kohaku were already talking in hushed voices across the electric barrier. Miroku was still trying to comfort their hysterical children. Kai could hear Sango stressing to Kohaku that he was strong enough to take charge now, that he could lead them easily and keep them safe if need be. Kohaku was relatively quiet, nodding with a certain amount of confidence that made it obvious that Sango was comforting her own fears, not his. The look on the young demon hunter’s face was eerily familiar; Kai realized it was his own expression, sometimes caught in the reflection in the centermost den’s waterfall entrance, when he let the darker memories take too much hold.

An expression of stalwart survival.

Rin was wearing this same expression too, although Kai could not see it. The girl had made a continual effort to avoid looking at the young wolf or interacting with him. She was instead surveying the skies, as if waiting for Sesshoumaru to arrive and find a solution to all this. He always would come, her lord. She only had to wait.

Souten was watching the skies too, but for a different reason. She had sensed something off about the cloud that had drifted over the village, but her own reservations about her abilities had led her to stay silent. What if it was just a rogue stormcloud? What if it was just her imagination? The adults trusted her to give good information when she had it; a hunch was just that—a guess by a scared little girl. She wouldn’t be revealed as such, if she could avoid it.

More acquainted to horrible surprises after his time traveling with Kagome and Inuyasha, Shippou had immediately transformed and floating high above the barrier. A few mushrooms in the hand served as a good test for the barrier’s strength at various points, but they didn’t reveal anything of use—the barrier was unwavering from any angle at any given site. Shippou felt that familiar frustration setting in. Five years ago, he had been useless against most of the foes they had faced. In fact, trickery had been _all_ he could do, not simply his preferred form of combat. He had felt more like an accessory at times than a member of the group. This was no fault of the others, of course, and they did their best to play up the role he played, but rarely did he find himself doing something meaningful in the bigger battles against more powerful enemies. He sunk down to the ground, deflating back into his regular shape. Beyond the barrier, Inuyasha was starting to wake up, but Kagome showed no sign of loosening her grip on him. The closest thing Shippou had to parents after his father had been killed, rendered immobile by this…this horrible, god-made lightning dome.

If they couldn’t fix this, how could he? 

____________________

 

Souta stared down at the hanafuda cards on the table, then those in his hand, and then swallowed loudly. He had called koi-koi on the eleventh hand, and then Chuuro had swept the table with an Akatan, Aotan no Chōfuku combo. That was…

“Forty points,” he moaned softly. “I lost.” 

“ _Badly_ ,” the god added.

“You don’t need to rub it in,” Souta mumbled, rubbing his face in frustration. By the time he finished, his bangs were disheveled and his cheeks pink. “Fine. Send me off…wherever until the week’s up.” 

Something in the boy’s heart hoped, however, that the god would show mercy, perhaps even grin and state how much he liked Souta’s spunk. That was how shounen manga plots always went—the master would take to the young hero and help him learn a new technique after wiping the floor with him. 

“Okay,” Chuuro said simply. The pillow on which Souta sat was suddenly a portal, and the teen fell straight in. 

Souta’s voice caught in a terrified wail as darkness engulfed him.

________________________

 

“You have to go to Suijin’s lake without us.” 

Two of the six children standing in front of Kagome continued to look into her eyes, while the other four suddenly found other things to look at. For Rin, it was the hem on the edge of her kimono sleeve, while Kai was staring at the ground, Kohaku at his sister, and Souten at the sky. But despite looking in the same direction, Shippou and Kiko wore opposite expressions. 

“I remember how to get there,” Shippou said confidently. “So does Kirara. Between the two of us, it won’t take any time at all. Maybe she’ll know a way to break this barrier as well!”

“Maybe,” Kagome agreed. “But more importantly, you have to find out what Izanami is planning. If she doesn’t know, find out who would and report back to us. You’re our eyes and ears until we find a way out of this.”

Kiko’s eyebrows were raised so high on her forehead that they had completely disappeared under her bangs. “Are you _out of your damn minds_?! How are _we_ going to do anything? We’re _kids_! We’re not even old enough to drive!”

“Kiko…” Kagome began.

“ _No_ , don’t even start on me with that ‘responsibility’ crap again! I’m fifteen! I should be going on dates and studying for my high school entrance exams, not trying to find some goddess to find out why another goddess is sending undead women and lightning dudes to Earth! That’s not exactly on my list of hobbies and interests!”

“You’ll be fine,” Inuyasha muttered, still clutching his chest where the lightning had channeled through after striking Tessaiga. “If there’s a fight, you all run. Even you two—” He pointed at Kai and Kohaku. “You _don’t_ do anything that will get you in trouble, and you _don’t_ divert off the path. You _don’t fight_.” 

“ _I’m_ not planning on fighting, because _I’m_ not going anywhere,” Kiko asserted, falling into a sitting position on the ground, arms crossed over her chest. Sekichu swam in slow circles in the air above her shoulders, occasionally brushing against her hair. “I’m a boring, completely human girl. I’m just going to sit right _here_.”

“You’ll starve to death,” Kai said helpfully. “All the food storage is inside the barrier and you’re not a very good hunter.”

Kiko turned her head to glower at him and Kai wondered if she had still mastered jaki despite not being a youkai. Shippou, Rin, and Kohaku were already finishing tying supplies to Kirara, ignoring the conversation going on behind them. Kiko turned to glare at them as well.

“You guys are all just going to go kumbaya when a bunch of evil gods who want to kill us could appear at any time? _Seriously_?”

“It’s better than waiting,” Rin said. “Come on, you and I can be useless humans together!” It was a brilliant appeal to Kiko’s character, as Kohaku thought about it.

“Except that _you’re_ good at chores,” Kiko pointed out. “So you’d have something to do to take your mind off being scared shitless the whole time.”

“She’s got you there,” Shippou nodded at Rin. “She’s pretty much terrible at all the chores we’d need done.”

“Rin’s not doing all the chores,” Kohaku said. “We’ll share everything.” Rin glanced over at him and smiled gratefully. He busied himself with making sure Kirara couldn’t lose any supplies in transit.

“Stay if you want, Kiko!” Souten said, puffing out her chest. “I am warrior enough for the both of us! I will slay any foe that tests us with no mercy!”

“No. Fighting.” Inuyasha repeated, aggravated. 

Kiko was half-sneering at the whole lot of them. This was _completely_ ridiculous. She was a middle school student. Maybe Kagome, patron saint of Higurashi humility, could just come to the Sengoku Jidai and start wandering around combatting evil like it was No Big Thing, but Kiko was neither humble nor brave. And she wasn’t particularly interested in acquiring either of those traits any time soon. _Particularly_ not at the cost of going off into the, quite frankly, _terrifying_ forest in search of goddesses and secret plots.

“Kiko,” Kagome said quietly, but with a sort of firmness that made Kiko immediately cringe. “We were young too, when we fought Naraku. You need to go. We can’t guarantee you’ll be safe here with this barrier between us, so you need to stay with the others. They can help keep you safe if something goes wrong.”

“If we’re in the mood,” Shippou muttered under his breath. 

“Besides,” Kagome continued, ignoring the kitsune, “Sekichu will keep an eye on you. Maybe you can ask Suijin about her as well, and see if you can find out what that man meant about Susanoo. It may be useful to us as well.”

Kiko began to pout her cheeks out, gaze now downcast at the cold dirt and melted snow in front of her.

“I know it’s scary,” Kagome said gently. “I know you wish you were at home in your own bed—I wish you were there, too, safe from this—but you’re not. So you have to try and keep going, even if it terrifies you. It terrified me too, when I first came. But people are going to get hurt if we don’t do anything. I’m sure Suijin will know how to fix this—” She pointed at the barrier between them. “And then we’ll take over and you kids can go back to just being kids again.” 

“We’ll never be kids again, not after Naraku,” Kohaku said suddenly, voice calm. “We’re going to go find a way to stop this, and we’re going to leave _now_.” He glanced at Kiko. “You can stay if you want. You are the only one of us who is a child.”

These words, from the mouth of a normally reserved teen, were a shock to everyone gathered, but they were not meant maliciously. Most of the group seemed to understand this, but Kiko’s cheeks reddened with a mix of fury and embarrassment. Up until this point, Kagome knew, she had considered herself the most mature of the teens, simply by virtue of being from the future. Something in the tone of Kohaku’s voice—the natural authoritarian tone in it, perhaps—was violently shattering that notion for Kiko. The rest of the children wanted to go. They wanted to _save_ the world.

Kiko only wanted to _live_ in it.

Following Kohaku’s directions and led by his climbing atop Kirara, the rest of the young group prepared appropriately. Kai preferred running to flying, so he’d stay on the ground, but Rin and Souten would ride Shippou in the kitsune’s inflated transformation. Emiko and Etsuko were screaming their good lucks through the barrier, held safely at a distance by Miroku and Sango, and Inuyasha was still barking off orders at the boys in the group, but Kagome was still looking at Kiko.

“Kiko,” she said.

Kirara rose into the air first, a fiery leap sending her high into the air. Kai was off too, keeping a medium pace as he watched Shippou take off as well.

“Kiko,” Kagome repeated, voice suddenly urgent. 

“Kiko!” Rin called down, concerned, then Souten repeated that, a little bossier in tone.

The teen in question blew a loud breath out of her inflated cheeks and glanced at Sekichu. The little fish was staring up at her with large, dark, pleading eyes. She nudged Kiko’s hand a little, then her elbow. The teen looked over at Shippou and saw he was already pretty far off the ground. Her head snapped back to Kagome, eyes wide with fear. 

“You can do it,” Kagome said with a small smile. “You’re a Higurashi, after all. You’ll be _fine_.”

Kiko was on her feet the moment the words left Kagome’s lips, rushing at full speed towards Shippou. Sekichu happily trailed after her, long fins flapping in the wind.

“ _WAIT FOR ME, YOU JERKS!!!_ ”

Kagome watched the kitsune finally lower himself after a few good minutes of messing around with Kiko. Her cousin climbed aboard, glancing over her shoulder once she was safely straddled across the kitsune. Rin and Souten were already talking to her about something, but she didn’t seem to notice yet. She was still looking at Kagome.

“You know,” Inuyasha muttered from where he still half-lay in her arms. “You’re going to be a great mom.”  Kagome’s fingers curled over her stomach as she smiled down at him.

Too early for hope, and yet she had it in spades.


	21. The Sense of Sight

Souta landed with a resounding smack on a cold, marble floor. At least, he had to assume the floor was marble, since he couldn’t actually _see_ anything. The fall pushed the air out of his lungs in a loud rush, and he lay on the ground for a long time, trying to catch his breath. When it finally came after many ragged inhales and wheezing exhales, he curled his fingers on the marble, making fists with which to push himself up into a sitting position. He glanced around in the hopes of catching some sliver of light from the area around him. 

Nothing.

“You just _haaaaaad_ to boss around a god, didn’t you, Souta, you big idiot,” he reprimanded. Shifting his weight on his legs, he spread out across the floor. His head hung lightly as he rubbed his face. “God, I’m going to be here for…what, four days? Five? Souta, you _stupid_ —”

Souta fell back on his back, spreading his arms out at his side. There was no ceiling that he could tell. Was he in a cave? Maybe even a basement somewhere? Probably not outside, since the ground felt man-made and polished.

Although, knowing his luck, he was probably in some sort of pocket universe that Chuuro had created specifically to punish dumb humans who tried pulling dumb bravado on him. He had left Junko, Kirara, and Hitomaru outside Chuuro’s door, but maybe they’d realize he was gone and then—

And _then_ _what_?

Between Junko’s hair-trigger temper and Hitomaru’s inability to keep her calm, he figured they’d be crashing in here as well if they decided to come in after him. If Hitomaru came crashing down right above him, Souta would never know until the giant oni teen flattened him. Cautiously, he scooted a few feet over, dragging his bottom on the ground until he felt secure in the notion that, if the portal stayed in the same place, he wouldn’t be crushed to death by his eight-and-a-half-foot-tall-and-then-some friend.

He remained staring up for a while, but finding nothing but black, he hung his head again. He couldn’t even make his own body out in this darkness. A hand only inches in front of his eyes confirmed that the lack of light was very nearly oppressive. Souta sighed and began feeling around him on the ground, hoping to find perhaps the seam of tile or signs of wear. Perhaps someone had walked around in this area before—marble could soften in worn paths, he knew.

What he did find was neither of those things. His fingers snagged it first, but without visual cues, Souta could only assume he had run across a hair or thin string. But as he gripped it, he realized that the thread couldn’t be picked up—or even loosened. It seemed nearly glued onto the floor itself.

Souta stared at it in the dark. _Maybe if he_ —

He turned over and crouched down on all fours, lowering his face to the ground as much as he could. It was a _ridiculous_ position to be in, but something about this entire situation had had Souta being ridiculous since day one. Riding on stranger’s nekomatas, confronting gods, making _really horrible wagers_ …

Seeing nothing, he leaned all the way over, hitting his head on the ground in frustration. Then, he hit it again. After a moment, he did it a third time just to be safe, and this time he left it there, feeling the cool kiss of the marble against his forehead. He closed his eyes, since there was nothing to see anyway, and tried to focus on breathing. With as hard as his heart was beating, a little meditation wasn’t the worst idea he’d had all day.

A breath in, another out. He felt his frustrations building quickly, and yet with another few breaths, they were suddenly disintegrating. A few more and he felt his shoulders relax.

Several more yet and he heard that voice again. 

_Open your eyes, Souta._

He did as commanded and realized that he could _see_ the thread underneath his fingers. 

Souta raised his head off the ground at lightning speed. The thread was a soft blue, somewhat shimmering at times with shades of white and purple, and thrumming with some sort of power. He looked at his fingers, pressed on either side of it, and realized that the light from the thread was not giving off a glow that appeared on anything else. He still couldn’t see his body, nor his hands, but Souta _could_ see that single thread. 

Running his finger over the thread, Souta began to move in the direction it was pulsing. First it was shuffling on all fours as he traced it, then he moved to his knees, and by the time he stood up, he was able to perceive the light even though it had not increased in strength at all. Chalking it up to his eyes finally acclimating to the surrounding darkness, Souta decided to follow that thread to wherever it may lead.

After all, it was better than just sitting there until Chuuro decided to let him out.

______________________

 

They had flown through the night, finally landing and making a small camp when day broke. Breakfast had to be eaten, and the next leg of the journey needed to be mapped out. Shippou and Kirara remembered the way, but Kohaku had taken one look at forests in front of them from Kirara’s spot in the sky and said they’d need to go around.

“Go _around_?” Shippou guffawed, looking between the map in front of them and the landscape before them. “But that’ll add a whole day to our trip, if not two! It’d be faster to go through!” 

“There are youkai in those woods,” Kohaku said, pointing to the woods west of them. “A _lot_ of them. We won’t have any problems passing through with most of them, but Inuyasha told us to play it safe. We don’t need to find out right now what _else_ could be in there.” 

“I agree with Kohaku,” Kiko said primly. 

“Who asked you?” Shippou grumbled. “You’re supposed to be helping Souten and Rin make breakfast.”

“I’m only good at cooking with fancy ingredients, like beef and shallots, or panko crumbs and shrimp. If I have to eat boiled fish and rice one more day, I’m going to _die_!” Kiko exclaimed dramatically. Both Kohaku and Shippou regarded her with looks that told her she’d find no sympathy with them, so she stood up theatrically, and moving away, threw herself onto the ground beside Kai. “Do you hear me, Kai? _DIE_. I’m going to waste away into _nothing_.”

Kai regarded her carefully. “You can come eat with the pack when we get back from this,” he offered. The girl sprung back up off her back, smiling excitedly.

“ _Really_?! Okay! What kind of food do you guys usually eat?”

“Rabbit, mostly. Maybe deer. Sometimes birds if we can catch them,” Kai explained.

Kiko’s eyebrow twitched. “Yeah, but what do you eat for side dishes?”

“Why would you eat anything else with good, raw meat?” 

Kiko threw herself back down and covered her face with her hands. “ _I’m going to_ _dieeeeeee_ ,” she moaned pitifully. “All I want is a hot hamburger, or maybe a bag of chips, or some warm bread…” 

Kai didn’t respond, although he did chuckle softly. 

She uncovered her face and looked at him, lower lip jutting out. “You think I’m joking.”

“No,” Kai replied, “I’m just wondering how long it would take me drag you back to the pack den so we could have your corpse for a special feast if you died.”

Kiko shoved him, the wolf rolling easily with the motion but staying upright. “Go back to the mountains. I don’t want to talk to you anymore. We’ll go find Suijin without you.”

Kai shrugged and stood up. “Okay. See you in a few days. I’ll drop by once you die from not eating fancy future food.”

“Urghh! Stop teasing me! Go away!” she grumbled, pushing his back with her shoulder. He buried his heels and looked back at her, still grinning mischievously. After a few futile moments of trying to push a youkai boy who was much stronger naturally than her, Kiko surrendered and slammed her forehead against his back spitefully. He chuckled again.

“Hey, you two!” Rin called from where the group had stopped to rest. “Breakfast is ready!”                 

“Kill me now,” Kiko moaned, hanging her head, “just strangle me with a boiled fish.” 

“We’re having a hotpot! Hurry up before Souten eats all your share!”

“Hotpot?” Kiko’s head popped back up. “Hotpot?!”

“Is hotpot a meat?” Kai asked.

Kiko slapped his back with her open palms excitedly, as if playing a drum. “Come on, Kai! You have to try it!”

Kai watched her turn and run towards Rin. The group had chosen a low hill to give a high point for vantage and a low point for staying out of sight, so her trip was mostly downhill. Halfway there, her momentum and the incline of the ground sent her on a slide that ended up causing her to crash on her bottom. In her excitement, Kiko bounced right back up, continuing towards her friend at full-speed. Rin stretched out her arms, catching the other girl by the shoulders a second before she slammed into her. Kouga was totally right—humans were weird. Kai chuckled and followed after them, appearing beside in the two in a burst of speed of wind a moment later.

“Wahh!” Kiko shrieked. “You should really tell people when you’re going to do that!” 

Kai cracked a small grin at her, making sure to stay on her side so as not to startle Rin. “If this hotpot stuff is so great, maybe I’ll just beat you to it and eat it all first.” 

Kiko gasped and charged at him but he easily dodged her, appearing a few feet ahead of her every time she lunged at him. Rin burst out laughing in spite of herself and followed the two teens back to camp.

Souten was already waiting at the large cooking kettle, occasionally summoning tiny bolts of lightning to strike the fire if it seemed to be decreasing in size. The thick broth inside was heavier than a traditional hotpot, but it would serve as a light stew to supplement the chunks of meat that Souten was occasionally popping in and later fishing out.

“I’m soooooo hungry,” Kiko said as she sat down beside the small youkai. “Let’s eat!” 

“We have to wait for Shippou and Kohaku,” Souten said formally. 

“Says who?” Kiko said, looking over her shoulder to see the two boys bringing up the rear. The far rear. “Ugh, it’ll be another minute or two at least. I’ll _die_ before then.” 

“Wow, you’re pretty close to death, huh?” Rin teased, taking a seat opposite Kai on the ground. He had stayed closer to Souten and Kiko, wondering if he could snatch a piece of meat before anyone noticed. The three girls were now arguing manners, and with one quick movement of his hand—onto the plate of cooked meat, into his mouth— 

“Hmm, what’s wrong?” Kohaku said as he sat down beside Kai, whose face was suddenly scrunched up in disgust.

“Over…cooked…” the wolf grumbled in reply, then stood up. “Sorry, I know you all worked hard, but I better do my own hunting…”

“That’s okay,” Shippou said with a nod. “Everyone knows wolves prefer fresh, raw meat to the cooked stuff. I think I saw a rabbit somewhere over there earlier.” He pointed with two fingers and the other youkai boy nodded, following that tip. 

Kiko watched Kai move towards a small set of trees nearby, clearly already stalking something. “So…” she began, squinting to keep an eye on him. “I can have his share, righ—” She turned her head to see Shippou and Souten already dividing the extra meat and broth between them. “YOU **PIGS**!” 

“You were trying to eat it too! Doesn’t that make _you_ a pig?” Shippou teased, easily avoiding a swipe from the older girl. 

“We’re growing warriors! We need extra so we can have the strength to defend you!” Souten added, shoving her extras into her mouth immediately afterward and rendering herself incapable of speaking further as she chewed furiously.

Kiko sneered and looked over to Kohaku and Rin for support. But the other two humans were already eating their own meals, exchanging the few vegetables in the broth between themselves: lotus roots for Rin, radishes for Kohaku. Kiko rolled her eyes at this and settled back into her seat, eating the rest of her meat and broth in silence.

It wasn’t a restaurant-style Chinese hotpot by any means, but it was good enough for Kiko. And at least it wasn’t godforsaken boiled fish.

_______________________  
  
  


Souta followed the shimmering blue thread as it twisted and turned, surprised to realize that he never brushed against or felt any change in the space around him. He had assumed that eventually he would run into a wall, or at least find one, but the space truly seemed to be a vast, open area. 

It was then that he noticed the other threads beginning to appear. They all shimmered like the one he was following, but there was something…off about their appearance. At first, it was just a few strands appearing from off in the darkness, but then suddenly there were hundreds of them, getting closer and closer to the one he followed as he walked. Then they began to run parallel to his, keeping closer with every step, until they were slowly creating a thick braid on the floor, then a few braids, then an entire rug of the threads.

Souta stopped suddenly, looking up to realize the entire space in front of him was now a massive web made of the threads.

It was tall beyond belief and went both left and right without end, and every single inch of it was coated in billions of tiny, shimmering threads. Vaguely, Souta was reminded of watching Kagome wash her hair when he was younger—the dark strands that would shimmer with the water and the light, tumbling and twisting together yet never getting entangled.

He looked around, trying to decide what to do next, but no good idea came to him. Perhaps he could climb up? But Souta was not particularly physically gifted and that climb would be _quite_ an effort. Maybe he could choose either left or right and just follow the wall until it ended. 

But what if it never ended?

Frustrated, Souta looked back down at the ground, trying to find his original thread. It was buried in thousands of others, but he still could spot its difference. He reached down, and found that now he could pick it up somewhat. It was still leading…

“To the wall?” Souta murmured to himself, fingers tugging on the thread as he approached carefully. It was pulsing ever-harder, and a slight heat was beginning to roll off of it. He realized that, unlike the others, this thread was going _into_ the wall. But where?

Souta began to dig through the other threads coating the wall, keeping the special thread taut in one hand so he could see where to burrow. After several feet of threads that seemed to shift easily away from his hands, there was suddenly the tiniest pinhole of light. He squinted against it, then tugged his thread harder. 

The light spread out, the space widening. A sudden rush of anxiety striking him, Souta dug with both hands, spreading the hole out until it was large enough for him to stick his head through. Then, catching at the shoulders, he squirmed until the opening widened further. The light in this new room was too bright for immediate focusing, so as he slid onto the ground (a soft, well-trodden hardwood), he rubbed his eyes. The thread stayed in his hand even as he used his fists to try and scrub adjustment into his vision.

A tug on the string made him shout in surprise. He dropped his hands, squinting against the light, and traced his sight along the thread’s path, up to where the end of it sat in Chuuro’s hand.

They were in an ornately decorated room surrounded on three side by high desks stacked four levels high. Youkai and kami sitting in these desks were staring _right at him_ , Souta realized, his cheeks heating with embarrassment.

“Representatives of the Parliament, I present to you Higurashi Souta,” Chuuro said, a knowing smile upon his face. “The next onmyouji of Seimei City.”

  


	22. Walking in Line

“A full-blooded human as our onmyouji? You expect a _human_ to keep the peace in Seimei City?”

“He’s already too old to be trained properly. I understand his heritage, but—”

“More incidents are being reported lately. How we can expect our people to trust us when we’re trying to appoint a human—”

“Not to mention the danger of giving him access to our secrets—” 

“Ill-conceived—”

“Outsider—” 

“Foolish—”

“ _Dangerous_ —” 

“Umm,” Souta said politely, raising a hand from where he was kneeling on the wooden floor in front of hundreds of youkai and kami. “Can someone please explain to me what’s going on?”

Chuuro was scratching the back of his head. The look on his face had been darkening as each representative spoke and now he was positively glowering. “These folks,” he spat, “would rather deny a human his inborn right to a title rather than accept that all humans can be trusted.”

“Look at our history—” One youkai immediately justified, raising a hand towards the paintings adorning the walls. “They pursued us nearly to extinction.”

“You did your fair share,” Chuuro replied curtly.

“The natural balance was shaken when humans decided to eradicate us from the Earth and rewrite our existence into fairytales,” another added. “We’ve had to create this entire society to keep us safe from the humans, and now you’re just asking us to bring one in and just _let_ him lead us?” 

“Lead?” Souta repeated. “I’m…I’m not really interested in leading anyone. I’m not even a class representative at school. I mean, I’ve thought about it, but that’s not really—” 

“Let Master Kameyo speak to him,” Chuuro said, interrupting him. “You’ve trusted her for nearly 200 years. If she does not agree with what I’ve seen, then we wipe the boy’s memory of the place and send him back. Although, I will add, I’m the only one of you who’s brought a suitable candidate.”

The entire gathering of beings seemed uncomfortable with this idea and hushed conversations immediately took over. For a moment, it seemed as though there would be no decision, until a tall man near the back rose from his seat. He was wearing a neat suit, tailored closely to the fit of his body and clearly expensive. Souta had noticed a few moments before that he and the few youkai and kami seated near him were the only group not actively fighting against Chuuro’s suggestion.

“I will take him to Kameyo,” the man said. There was a certain level of cool authority to his tone, as though he was simply speaking his actions out loud to himself, rather than responding to anyone in the room. Souta was struck with the distinct impression that this man never did anything simply because he was asked to do so.

“To speak so _informally_ of the Master—” A squat youkai with one eye gasped from the other side of the seats. The man turned, casting a single glance at the other youkai, and instantly the smaller being was shrinking in his seat in terror. Beside the tall youkai, the others were mostly smiling. One of them even seemed to be mocking the man behind his back playfully, while another raised his head up from where it lay in his arms on the table. Their companion’s behavior seemed to be some sort of exasperated joke that they found only vaguely amusing but couldn’t find the heart to try and curb. 

Chuuro grinned. “Great. Lead the way.”

Souta blinked and looked up at the god. “Is he the leader of the Parliament?”

“No, he’s never been one to lead of his own choice,” Chuuro replied, motioning for Souta to follow him as the tall man moved to exit out the back of the room. “But that’s one daiyoukai that all the beings here respect unconditionally.”

____________________

 

The fires were stirring already, bright against the night sky. Kyuzetsu watched them from a distance, secretly fearing any more burning than his body had already sustained. He was heavily bandaged, but no amount of ointment would heal the wounds the miko and her friends had inflicted on him. More than anything, he wanted revenge. He wanted to rip her still-quivering liver from her body and devour it in front of her husband. He wanted to tear the priest and the demon hunter into a hundred pieces and let the carrion crows have them. The hanyou…well, Kyuzetsu was not foolish enough to believe he had a chance of winning _that_ particular battle. But he did have two deities who would gladly deal with Inuyasha once their main goal was accomplished.

Raijin had flown into the crater hours ago, but even still massive bolts of lightning struck deep into the earth where he had disappeared. Stoking the fires, Kyuzetsu knew, but he still couldn’t help but feel apprehensive about the time this was taking. The miko and her friends were still trapped in the eight-bolt barrier, but it was only a matter of time until they found a way out. Raijin did not worry about this, but Kyuzetsu knew that the god’s divinity blinded him to the guile of humans and youkai alike. In the wide gap of knowledge that existed between the gods and everyone else, it was Kyuzetsu’s job to think where their divine spark made them reckless.

And the children were quickly becoming a blind spot in the plan.

It was troubling to have so many free of the barrier. He could be certain of none of their abilities, beyond Souten, but they were only children in name—they were adults grown in all the ways that mattered to him. And Souten had managed to divert Raijin’s attack, after all. If she were to find a way to stop Raijin entirely, that would—

A heavy crash of thunder drew Kyuzetsu’s attention back to the volcano. Smoke was beginning to pour from the crater, heavy and ashy with degraded soil and rock. Off to the east, from the general’s lands, people were already coming in heavy numbers. It was easy enough to do this sort of thing; tricking humans into believing the will of the gods was upon them was child’s play at this point. The general’s men had mostly been disposed of early on, and as the mountain in the distance churned, the rest of the village had fallen prey to Kyuzetsu’s soft words and whispers. 

They would come to supplicate, each of them, and then they’d throw themselves into the inferno.

The third pillar would rise soon.

_____________________

 

Souten had been practicing her attacks in the time they were supposed to be resting. The first few times she had snuck away, no one had noticed, but by the fourth night, Shippou had risen after her. He followed her through the hills until she seemed to find a place far enough out to begin practicing.

She started with light martial arts. Her fists crackled with each punch, a small rumble of thunder accompanying each kick. Then she moved onto her acorns; by sending a few in the air at random, she could practice precise aiming of her lightning attacks. The group had decided that resting during the early morning was safest, so there was no risk of the light waking anyone up.

Shippou bowed behind a nearby tree trunk, little fingers scraping the bark idly as he watched her. Five years ago, Souten had challenged him to a battle that neither of them had won, but now he increasingly certain that she could win if they clashed again. Their abilities had once been matched—trick for trick, mushrooms for acorns—but now she was moving closer to her clan’s heritage.

That was _terrifying_ to Shippou. Not too long before they had first met, Souten’s brothers had killed his father and worn him as a pelt. It was something that he had easily forgiven, seeing her true nature, but the strength in her eyes as she summoned her clan’s lightning to her made him fearful again. In the past few years, Shippou had trained long and hard to become a powerful kitsune. Yet, he was beginning to realize that “strength” for a kitsune was entirely different from other youkai. He would be ranked on his tricks, his illusions. His foxfire was strong, certainly. But since he had learned to wield no real weapon, he had to rely exclusively on it. He was, in effect, a one-trick fox in that regard. 

Souten could use many weapons with ease, so long as they were appropriate for her size.

Which, Shippou noticed with increasing frustration, was _taller_ than him. That made sense enough, since girls often grew faster than boys and kitsune were particularly slow-growing youkai, but it made it no less annoying. He didn’t want to become the weakest again. He didn’t want to cling to someone else, putting up shows of bravado that everyone knew meant nothing once the real villains came into play.

Souten paused in her exercising, adjusting one of the straps of her armor. ‘ _I’ll need to get new armor soon,_ ’ she thought proudly. ‘ _Soon enough, it’ll be a grown warrior’s armor, not just a child’s._ ’ 

From behind her, Shippou chucked a mushroom at her head. She spun in surprise, fists already up and spitting electricity. 

“Shippou?! I almost electrocuted you! What do you want?” 

The fox looked down at the ground, then up at the sky. It was a clear day, if not still quite cold. He was doing a good show of not being too interested in responding immediately, and Souten’s hands went to her hips in annoyance.

“It’s no good to train alone,” Shippou finally said. “If you really want to improve, you should spar with me. I’m the sixth-ranked kitsune, you know.” 

Souten’s hands dropped off her hips in surprise. “You mean—”

“It’s just that you won’t grow if you don’t have someone to actually react to your attacks and who you have to defend yourself from, you know? I mean, it’s a chore for me, but I don’t mind to—” He shrieked as Souten was already upon him, shoving a fist towards his stomach. A quick twist was all that kept him from a certainly _shocking_ encounter, and he flailed his arms at her. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I DIDN’T SAY START!!!”

“Well, neither does the enemy,” Souten said. She smiled, sharp canines gleaming and Shippou realized that he might have made a dangerous miscalculation.

___________________

 

Souta was struggling to keep up with Chuuro and the tall daiyoukai. It wasn’t that either man was walking with any particular speed, but their heights compared to the still-growing Souta’s made it an effort to keep up with their strides. Every few steps, he’d find himself going to a soft trot, closing the distance between him and them, only to fall behind again.

They weren’t talking, which Souta found weird enough. There had been no more talk of that onmyouji stuff, which he was _pretty_ _sure_ meant that he was about to get shoehorned into it whether or not he was even interested (or available, he thought with some degree of gloom, remembering how much studying and dating he already had planned for the next semester).

Then again, the daiyoukai didn’t look to be one for small talk. Souta glanced at his back, not staring too long at any given moment for fear that the man would turn and suddenly devour him. Or at least cut him to emotional pieces with a precisely brutal comment. He had rather long hair, meticulously groomed and gathered neatly into a ponytail. Its color was the most interesting aspect, however.

Souta had never seen someone with naturally white hair before. Well, besides Inuyasha.

They had been walking down a long hallway for an even longer amount of time before Souta saw the door. As they drew closer, he realized that it was an exact replica of the gate at the front of Seimei City, only _much_ smaller. The daiyoukai reached it first, pushing the double doors open with a grace that immediately told Souta they would be heavy as hell if he had tried the same move.

“You go in,” Chuuro motioned, stopping short at the door. “It’s a confusing kind of place for me, so I’m staying out here.” The daiyoukai clearly had no intention of entering as well, although he made no move to announce it aloud. 

Souta craned his head to look inside the room without stepping inside. It was completely empty, possessing no ceiling, walls, or even a floor. “Uhh,” he began, starting to turn his head right as Chuuro lifted a leg and kicked him in by the seat of his pants.

The doors shut behind him with a resounding snap, and Souta cussed loudly. When he raised his head, the empty room was still empty. Only there was a person far off in the distance, facing him. As he stood and walked closer, he realized that this person was ancient, decrepit even. There were more wrinkles on its face than actual features, and the color of its skin was only barely lighter than the silver of its hair. It was not awake—or at least, it didn’t _seem_ to be awake.

Souta, against his better judgment, walked closer. “Umm, hello? Are you asleep?” After a moment, he whispered to himself, “Are you even _alive_?”

No reply from the ancient person, so Souta leaned in a little. Maybe it was like Grandpa, slightly hard of hearing if he didn’t know you were talking to him.

“HELLO,” he half-yelled. “CAN YOU HEAR ME?” 

Still no reply.

“Well, this is a blast and a half,” Souta muttered to himself, turning to look at the rest of the vacant space. “I’ve _got_ to start making better life decisions. I don’t even know how I get myself into these sit—” 

“ ** _BOO!_** ” the old being suddenly yelled, eyes popping open, and Souta emitted the scream of a ten-year-old girl, falling backwards onto the ground. Immediately, the old person began to laugh. Souta realized it was a female from its voice.

“M-Master Kameyo?” he ventured, rubbing his chest where his heart threatened to burst out in fear. “Are _you_ Master Kameyo?” 

The face watched him for a moment and then the wrinkles all folded into a warm smile. When she smiled, she was quite adorable, in that way that the oldest of people automatically were. 

“I am,” she said, her voice a little rickety but still somewhat youthful. “Although you certainly don’t have to call me ‘Master.’ Well, at least not until you decide whether or not you will remain in Seimei City and become its onmyouji in my stead.”

“You…you’re the onmyouji right now?” 

“I have been the onmyouji of Seimei City for nearly 200 years.” Souta visibly recoiled from this information and Kameyo laughed anew. “I know, I look _great_ for my age. Not a day over 150, everyone tells me. And I suppose I could find a few hundred more years if I had to. But there’s someone waiting for me in the afterlife, so if you do end up taking the job, that’d be great.”

“You’re a youkai?” Souta asked.

“A turtle,” Kameyo answered. “I’m no god. And I’m not all that powerful either, if you’re wondering. You won’t live nearly as long as me if you decide to take it up. The role of the onmyouji is to see the unseen. Aside from that, I never did much fighting. I was lucky to live in peaceful times. What I can see is only the beginnings of a wider web. It’d be up to you to find the rest of the pieces and determine what they mean.” 

Souta was unsure of what to address first, so he started at the most natural place. “Why me?”

“Well,” Kameyo said simply. “Why _not_?”

_________________________

 

Suijin’s lake came into view at twilight. Souten had noticed it first, although Shippou had immediately claimed to see it too, and Kirara moved towards it with renewed speed. The group had rested very little in the past several days, and it was beginning to show on many of their faces. Kiko looked close to passing out from exhaustion as she hugged Shippou’s inflated form, while Sekichu snuggled against the red fabric of her hakama. Rin also seemed close to sleeping, but she was putting on a clear-eyed front as much as she could. Souten had made it clear that she enjoyed a vigorous journey but wanted a soft bed in Suijin’s castle, and Kai had been eating double his normal meals to keep up the energy needed to run this far this long. Even Kohaku recognized that their speed of travel was detrimental to his own attentiveness—he had almost dropped his spoon at breakfast earlier that day, so exhausted was he.

Yet at news that their goal was close, all the teens seemed reenergized. Kiko stretched her arms out, cracking her back with a slight twist at the hips. Souten immediately moved to imitate it. Shippou increased his own speed to keep up with Kirara, while Kohaku yelled down to Kai that they were almost there. The wolf was currently down in the trees below, so it would be a few minutes yet until he too could see the lake.

They had only just landed lakeside and disembarked from their methods of travel when a bridge appeared in the water. As it extended out, the water parted, and the path turned to stairs. Two little women with fish-heads, dressed in elaborate kimono, were walking towards them. 

“Sekichu is _way_ cuter than these two,” Kiko whispered and promptly got an elbow in the side from Shippou.

The two groups bowed to one another. Kohaku had already assumed a leadership position at the front of the group, followed shortly by Kai. 

“You’ve come to speak to Lady Suijin,” the two fish-women said in unison. “Please follow us. Our mistress awaits your company.”

“We will need shelter for the night as well,” Kohaku said. “Can that be arranged?”

“Our mistress has already had the best of her guest rooms prepared for you,” they confirmed.

The castle was visible deep in the lake, beyond the stairs. It was beautiful, glittering with the pearls and shells adorning its walls. The two little women turned and began to descend down the stairs. They didn’t seem to have feet, Kai noticed, which made sense if he thought about it. They were probably actually floating fish with hair and clothes.

“The _best_?” Kiko said, unsurprisingly attracted by this offer. “Don’t mind if I do!” She passed Kohaku and Kai quickly, plodding excitedly down the stairs after the two attendants with Sekichu swimming alongside her. Kohaku glanced at Rin, hoping to find some sort of solidarity in trying to keep the group together, but the younger girl was already following her friend, Souten on their heels. Kai and Shippou followed too, both excited to see what the castle held for them. 

Kohaku sighed to himself. It wasn’t that the castle gave him any bad feelings or anxiety—it was that he was the only person in the group who didn’t act like a little kid in a candy store at the first sight of a glittering sea-castle. They were supposed to be acting _a little more_ composed than that. After all, they were not _that_ young and this was a Very Important mission that they were on.

And then he realized that even Kirara had left him behind and that the castle probably had some sort of buffet-style meal.

In spite of himself and his “maturity,” Kohaku felt his pace quicken. If he didn’t hurry, his friends would all take the _good_ stuff. In his mind, he didn’t even realize that he had now grouped the rest of them as his _friends_ , only that between Shippou and Kiko’s ravenous appetites, his share of hot food was at stake.


	23. Planning for the Worst

“If you think of a historical onmyouji’s role—that’s mostly just superstition, or even bad science. Some of them, like Abe no Seimei, were using supernatural gifts in order to aid those around them, but others were indeed frauds. The powers we possess do not discriminate between species—a youkai is just as likely to bear these gifts as a human or a kami, although there are those who wish to keep it only within the youkai community.” Kameyo stopped briefly. “I’m sure you know of whom I speak.  They probably already gave you a hard time in Parliament, huh?”

Souta nodded, reaching out for the teacup the old turtle youkai offered him. “Some of them, yeah.  Was my sister an onmyouji too? She could see the shards of the Shikon no Tama.” 

Kameyo considered this. “Your sister was one of the most powerful miko to ever live, if only because of her deep connection with the Shikon no Tama. But that connection was what allowed her to see the shards, not an innate gift of supernatural sight. Many miko and priests can see what is normally hidden, but only if there is evil energy involved. That’s a large difference between them and us. We share the ability to use shikigami, but we have no abilities of exorcism or blessing. Now, you could undergo the training for priesthood as well, which would make you a double-threat, but I never saw much use in that.”

“I want to take care of my family’s shrine, but I’m not so sure I want to be a priest,” Souta admitted.

“You have that choice. As you do with this position. But your gift will never leave. You will always see what is hidden. You are free to do with it as you will. There are still many humans who would pay for your services in choosing good locations for their homes.”

“Like feng shui,” Souta said.

Kameyo nodded. A silence fell between them.

“If I said I was interested…” Souta began. “ _Hypothetically_ , I mean. What kinds of things would I have to do? Would I have to drop out of school?”

The old woman laughed. “Oh no, it’s usually _nothing_ as time-consuming as that. You advise the Parliament on building zones, check for shifting ley lines, keep an eye out for any suspicious fluctuations in energy around Seimei City—those sorts of things. Indeed, if I hadn’t seen the changes happening around the area, I’d tell you it’s an easy job. However, Higurashi Souta, I do not believe your first few years would be easy at all.” 

Souta gulped. “Why?”

“I first noticed it after your sister was dragged to the Sengoku Jidai by the remains of the centipede youkai. It was only a small, black fuzz that sometimes hung on the shoulders on various youkai in the city. It stood out to me, but I couldn’t tell why. We call them kuroboshi, like in sumo. A black mark, a failure. By themselves, they are not so uncommon; in fact, most people will have one at least once in their life. It’s usually a sign that a heart is temporarily weakened by something—sometimes sorrow, sometimes anger. There are many things that can cause momentary weakness, but that’s what makes life so amazing—no matter how dark, we always find a way back to the light. At least…”

“At least _what_ ,” Souta said, leaning forward.

“Give me a moment. I _am_ old, you know,” the turtle grumbled. Souta leaned back. 

“Sorry.” 

Kameyo took a long sip of her own tea. It was a fragrant jasmine brew, and Souta had noticed that the steam in it swirled around Kameyo’s shoulders protectively. A shikigami, although he did not yet know that.

“I saw it one day as I’d seen a hundred thousand before,” she resumed eventually. “But it was not right. I couldn’t tell why, so I chalked it up to my age. I’m not nearly as sharp-sighted as I used to be, you know. And then a few days later…that youkai went into an alley in Akihabara and slaughtered three humans.”

Souta’s face turned white.

“After that, I began to see them more often. Not by any great increase, of course, or else I would have taken action sooner. Here and there, with large gaps of time in between. Something horrible would happen each time, but nothing large enough to attract public attention or inspire Parliament action. Your sister saved the past, came back, and they seemed to temporarily stop, and then when she left again, I saw another one.”

“What did the youkai that it was on do?” Souta asked quietly.

“It wasn’t a youkai that time,” Kameyo replied. “It was a _kami_. He drove his short sword into his belly and used his own intestines to seal off his reincarnation.” 

“His…reincarnation?”

“Many gods will eventually die, like us,” she explained. “Of course, it takes them much longer to get there, but the lesser ones will inevitably pass on. But their duties and abilities will still transfer to a predecessor, a spirit born at the exact moment of their death who becomes their reincarnation.” 

“Was it an important kami?” 

“ _All_ life is important,” Kameyo said gently, as though she were speaking to a child much younger than Souta. He realized then that in the long span of her life, his fifteen years were probably nothing more than the blink of an eye. “But his domain was relatively obsolete—he was the kami of an old type of wheat that no longer exists, except in museums. Still, sealing off one’s reincarnation is a divine crime—if he hadn’t killed himself, he would have faced the wrath of Heaven itself. To do something like that…he must have been out of his mind. The youkai before, as well. He was a man with a large family. He had never shown a propensity for violence. But both of them had fallen on hard times.”

“And you think that kuroboshi did something to them?” Souta surmised. 

“Well, you’re certainly _smart_ enough to be an onmyouji,” Kameyo chuckled. But the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes as previous ones had. “I do not wish to place such a heavy burden on you, particularly given your age, but you are the first in many years to show the gift of sight. If you do not accept, another will certainly be born—it is not an exclusive gift, or else we would not be speaking like this, but it is quite rare and those with it often never learn to hone it without help…” 

Souta felt his knuckles tighten over his knees. “You can…you can teach me to hone it?”

“Yes, of course,” Kameyo replied. “You would become my protégé. You could not be a proper onmyouji without training in the gift itself, much less the history of this place, how it came to be, how you can maintain peace within it. But the decision is ultimately yours. I’d not want a student who came to me under coercion.”

_______________________

 

“Would you like to eat first, or bathe?” The two attendants asked as they led the group through the lake castle’s wide gated doors.

“Bathe,” half of them answered simultaneously, while the other half answered, “Eat.” The two groups stared in surprise at one another.

“I’m starving,” Shippou said. “We should see what they have to eat first.” 

“You’re a gross mess,” Kiko noted, pretending to plug her nose. “I haven’t said anything because you’re the transportation, but you really need a bath.” Shippou sniffed his armpits and then glared at her. 

“Hey, I do NOT smell _that_ bad.” 

“That you even have to qualify it with ‘ _that bad_...’” Kiko answered smugly.

“That’s funny, because I was just thinking that you were the smelliest one of us all,” Shippou retorted, hands on his hips. Kiko gasped in offense. 

“I’d like to wash up before dinner,” Rin chimed in. “It’s what we do in the village as well.” She glanced at Kai, who was trying to pull Kiko and Shippou apart as they escalated in their argument. Despite having put himself bodily between them, Kai was struggling as Kiko had gotten a hold of Shippou’s tail and was now dragging the small youkai around. Shippou, in turn, started a rowdy song about the smelliest girl from the modern era. Souten, apparently for the fun of it, had joined in the fray too, hanging off one of Kai’s furs as she tried to kick Shippou.

“We’ll eat first,” Kohaku said finally, settling the argument in one fell swoop. The rest of the children froze in place.

“That’s because your stomach has been grumbling for an hour,” Kai noted. He had only sided with the ‘bathe’ group because Kiko had slapped his arm and mouthed to him to do so. Secretly, he was already wondering what kind of meat gods ate.

“Where is the dining room?” Kohaku asked the attendants, ignoring him altogether.

They were led to a large hall with arched ceilings and windows that showcased the lake outside. Fish were swimming around out there, occasionally looking through the panes in interest. In the center of the room, there was a large table, nearly fifty feet from beginning to end. Every inch of it was covered in foods. Some of them were basic staples, but the vast majority of them were exotic and elaborate, with ingredients that didn’t necessarily exist in this time period yet. 

As if led by an unheard call, the children all charged at the table.

“This smells _amazing_!” Kai said excitedly, heading immediately for thinly-cut raw meats and fish. Shippou tagged along, snatching handfuls of anything in his path and testing them experimentally. 

“CURRY!” Kiko wailed, nearly throwing herself into the pot of it. “I FOUND CURRY!” 

“What is _this_?” Souten whispered in wonderment, staring at the delicate, three-tier cake that lay before her. Rin was already trying to figure out how to cut it. 

Kohaku, hesitant even in his excitement, was still trying to decide what to eat first. Kiko passed by him, her plate already piled high with foods he had never even _seen_. She had seen what looked like taiyaki earlier, and now she was on the hunt for it. Rounding the corner of the table, she started as she saw the person sitting at the head of it.

“AHH, YOU—” she shouted, almost accusatorily, nearly dropping her bowl of curry.

Chuuro, picking chicken out of his teeth with a thin wing bone, shot her a dirty look. “No manners at all. I’m trying to enjoy a quiet meal here.”

“What are you doing here?” Kiko persisted, as though she hadn’t heard him in the first place. “Are you Suijin’s friend?” She gasped, holding a hand over her mouth coyly. “Are you…her _boyfriend_?!”

Chuuro nearly swallowed the bone in shock, recovering just in time. “What kind of question is _that_!? Have you not noticed that I don’t like stupid questions?”

“Huh, not really,” Kiko said. “So you _do_ like her, then?” A portal appeared underneath her feet and sent her crashing down onto a mat on the opposite end of the table.

“I came here to help you all out,” Chuuro grumbled, reaching for another chicken wing. “Don’t make me regret it.” Kohaku opened his mouth to ask what exactly they’d need help with, but was cut off by the large double doors on the other end of the room as they swung open.

A beautiful woman, attended on either side by more fish-women, came towards them. Suijin was still as lovely as she had been when Kagome and her friends had first met her, with delicate features and dark hair. Her dress was intricately detailed, showcasing large schools of fish that seemed to swim around the tapestry as she walked. In one hand, she was holding a weapon that Shippou recognized: the Trident of Amakoi. A holy weapon, useless in the hands of human or youkai. She moved it so easily that it seemed more an extensive of her arm than a separate accessory. Yet, there was a strength to her that seemed to harden around her edges, making her like a statue of beauty rather than a flimsy paper portrayal. 

“Welcome,” she said, and the girls in the group were already trying to imitate her posture in their respective places. “I hope it wasn’t too difficult to find this castle for you all.”

“No,” Kohaku answered, “no trouble at all.” 

“You’re _blushing_ ,” Shippou whispered to him. 

“That’s good,” Suijin nodded with a gentle smile. Shippou then realized Rin and Kiko were staring at her as dreamily as Kohaku was. He’d have to put up with them trying to emulate her for the next few days, no doubt. What a pain.

“Kagome sent us to see if you knew anything about some…events that have been happening lately,” Kohaku continued. 

“Raijin and Yomotsu-Shikome have been summoned from the underworld,” Suijin confirmed, not needing those details. “The kami have all been discussing it. I’ve heard about Raijin’s summoning from Chuuro. You all are very lucky that it was not his objective to fight you seriously. In staying true to his mission, he gave the rest of us a fighting chance.”

“His mission?” Rin repeated.

“To bring Izanami-no-Mikoto to this realm,” Suijin confirmed. “To raze the lands she helped create and destroy the weaker beings that Izanagi-no-Mikoto chose over her.”

“The weaker beings being…?” Kiko asked. She already looked ready to duck and run.

“When you’re dealing with a creature like Izanami,” Chuuro said, “ _everyone_ is a weaker being.”

“ _Aww man_ ,” Kiko whined under her breath. 

“If her followers succeed at opening the third pillar, she’ll have the power needed to open a portal between the underworld and this one. I wish I could say that the evil spirits that would overflow into this middle realm would be the most dangerous part…” Suijin said.

“But she won’t let anyone live long enough to see what they’d do,” Kohaku guessed. The hairs were beginning to rise on the back of his neck. “So then we break the barrier Raijin put on the village, and then we all go stop her from opening that portal.”

Chuuro and Suijin glanced at each other. 

“What?” Shippou said, noticing the looks on their faces.  
  
“We can’t help you break that barrier, kid,” Chuuro replied. “Raijin is a whole different level of god than us. Anything he put into place, I’m powerless to break. Even with my domain over pathways and passages—I can’t open anything in there.” 

Souten paled. “So they’re…they’re trapped in there?” 

“Until you stop Raijin, yeah,” Chuuro confirmed. 

“Woah, _hold up_ ,” Kiko said, putting her hands up. “If you can’t stop the guy, how are _we_ supposed to?”

Suijin turned her head slightly, regarding the teenager for the first time since she had entered the room. Sekichu was floating around Kiko’s shoulders, staring back at the goddess. “If you stop the third pillar from being completed, the ritual will be broken and the other two will be pulled back into the underworld. They only have one try for each pillar—if it broken, the ritual is ruined completely. This is not something that has been done on a whim. Every happening up to this point and from hereon is either Izanami’s planning or life itself trying to prepare for her coming. Nothing is coincidence anymore.” 

“So we take them head-on and break the third pillar before we even get to the point of her coming back,” Kai said.

“Spoken like a true wolf,” Chuuro groaned. “I had hoped for something more covert, but the others are more like you in spirit. Do everything up front, with your fists." 

“Wait, there are _other_ people involved?” Shippou asked.

“Of course,” Suijin said. “Surely you don’t think we’d all sit by and allow our existence to be destroyed without putting up some sort of resistance?”


	24. Hold On, Hold On

When Souta emerged from Master Kameyo’s room nearly an hour later, Chuuro was already clapping his hands lazily. The old man had a funny way of leaning against things as though he were perpetually about to fall through them. Souta supposed this was because anything he was leaning on could actually turn into a portal at his mere whim and perhaps the visage was suiting the power.

Or maybe Chuuro was just a perpetually bad-postured god. That was entirely possible too. Kami were turning out to be quite more multi-faceted than Souta remembered learning about from his grandfather. Once they had been mythical beings who seemed leagues apart from him, but Souta was realizing they were not all that different from humans after all. 

“Our new onmyouji!” he cheered, elbowing the tall daiyoukai beside him. The man, in turn, looked as though he might rip Chuuro’s head off at any moment. “Oh, don’t look so pissy! You’ve got a new spiritual adviser! So, Souta, when do you begin? Is Kameyo gonna get you started tomorrow or come Monday?”

Souta scratched his cheek. “Ahh, well…you see…”

Chuuro’s face fell. “Wait…you _aren’t_ …?”

“I’ve got a lot to consider first! I mean, it’s great to be considered and all, but I’m a middle school student! I was thinking about doing history at the University of Tokyo—that’s a pretty hard program to get into, so I’d have to start preparing now—”

“You’re…you’re thinking about where you’re going to study history?!” Chuuro nearly grabbed the teenager by his shoulders. “The entire fate of Seimei City could be on the line and you’re wondering about your _test scores_?!”

“I-it’s a pretty common concern among teenagers now!” Souta justified. “I’m not like you all!  I have to really think about where I’m going in life and how I’m getting there.”

“I just—can you back me up on this?” Chuuro said, turning to the man beside him. The daiyoukai did not answer, locking eyes with Souta for a moment before turning and walking away. “ _SERIOUSLY_?!” Chuuro yelled after him.

From around the corner, there were suddenly loud footsteps, apparently running. After a moment, Junko and Hitomaru rounded the corner, panting heavily. They passed the daiyoukai only barely by avoiding him at the last second (a feat more impressive for Hitomaru given the oni teen’s size).

“Ahh, Lord Sesshomaru!” Junko cried out as she stopped suddenly. “Why…why are you here?”

Sesshomaru regarded her briefly and then resumed walking away. “This is the Parliament building. I am a member of the Parliament.”

“That…makes sense,” Junko murmured, watching him leave. She turned the moment he was out of sight and gave Souta a big grin. “THERE HE IS! The next onmyouji of Seimei City!”

“Congratulations, Souta!” Hitomaru chimed in. “I’d always thought that you were quite special, and this just proves it!” 

“Suck-up,” Junko hissed, glaring up at the oni.

“I’m telling the truth!” Hitomaru insisted. “It doesn’t take much to see how Souta is so well-suited to the job!”

“Well, at least we can agree on that,” Junko said, too jovial to pick a fight. The two older teens came towards Souta and Chuuro. Junko clapped her hands over Souta’s shoulders, grinning brightly. “So, when do you start? My dad’ll want to give you a cool weapon as an offering. Maybe a katana? We have a _ton_ of those.” 

“Umm…” Souta laughed nervously and her grip on his shoulders went vice-like.

“What do you mean ‘ _umm’_?” 

“It’s just that—oww, you’re kind of hurting my—I thought I should think it through a little—do you think you could maybe loosen up—you know, take a little time—”

“A LITTLE _TIME_?!” Junko shrilled. “THE FUTURE OF SEIMEI CITY COULD BE AT STAKE AND YOU WANNA TAKE _A LITTLE TIME_ TO THINK ABOUT IT?!”

“ _Thank_ you,” Chuuro muttered, rubbing his brow. “I cannot believe I _finally_ found someone with the gift who doesn’t want to _use_ it.”

“I never said that,” Souta whined, trying to plead with Hitomaru to get Junko’s death-grip off him. The oni shrugged innocently—he too was a little too frightened by Junko’s rage to intervene. “I only said I need to think about it. I’d still like to use it! It seems useful!”

“ _Useful_ ,” Junko repeated, looking more and more like a bull in front of a red flag. “I’ll show you useful, you little—”

“Junko, I just finished getting fixed up from a broken arm a few days ago…you know…oww…you were there, so maybe if you could just…oww _oww_ _owwwww_ —”

________________________

 

If one were to think about it, onsen within a castle that was entirely underneath a lake made no sense at all. But as Kiko was quickly learning, the things that made the least sense were the absolute _best_. After dinner, the attendants had led them all to the baths. The teens had been surprised to see Suijin and Chuuro move to join them, but the gods didn’t seem to notice. The two groups had split up, girls and Suijin to the women’s bath and boys and Chuuro to the men’s, and from there they had taken up the usual ritual—washing before they entered, scrubbing the filth of their journey off, and then allowing the hot water to wash away the concerns that had built up like dams within them. 

True to her mercurial nature, Kiko seemed to shed her stresses first. Stretching out in the water, she laid a warm, wet rag across her eyes and forehead. “This,” she sighed. “This is exactly how I should be living all the time.” Sekichu too had dove into the water and was now swimming along the bath’s various channels. Occasionally she would surface, shooting a happy little trill of water into the air before returning to the steamy depths. 

“I’m pleased you like it,” Suijin smiled, her own pose in the steaming water relaxed but regal. Souten was still trying to imitate her, but being nearly shorter than the height of the water, she was relegated to sitting on a higher rock. Rin was pushing her hair up onto the top of her head as Kiko moved to rest her head on her friend’s shoulder. “These baths have been running for nearly a thousand years. Many brave warriors and great lords have taken respite in them.” 

“What about Lord Sesshoumaru?!” Kiko exclaimed. She raised up with such quickness that the rag on her face flopped into the water, splashing Souten slightly. The thunder youkai glared at her. “Sorry, Souten. Come here and I’ll help you take your hair down.”

“The dog daiyoukai?” Suijin asked, surprised. “No, I can’t say as he and I have ever met. Is he a friend of yours?”

“I suppose you could say that—” Kiko began with a demure giggle as she helped Souten undo one of her mussed pigtails. Beside her, Rin mouthed ‘NO’ to the lake goddess. 

Suijin, still looking surprised, burst out into laughter. The three girls turned to look at her in surprise.

“I’m sorry, but you three are…I so rarely receive guests, and certainly not young girls like yourselves. I forgot how lovely it is to talk to girls like you.”

The three preened under her praise, glancing at one another. It was nearly a picture-perfect moment until Rin, conspiring with Kiko, dumped a bucket of warm water over Souten’s head.

“PPFTT—HEY, WHAT ARE YOU—?!” 

“Sorry, Souten,” Rin apologized. “But your hair is going to get matted if you don’t wash it out better. Kouryuu would be mad at us for letting his lady walk around looking badly.”

“Until we can break him and the rest of our family and friends out of that barrier, Rin and I are going to make sure you clean everywhere, even behind those—” Kiko pinched one of Souten’s ears playfully. “—little youkai ears.” Despite herself, Souten laughed, batting at Kiko’s hands but quickly acquiescing to letting the human untangle her hair with her fingers. 

Rin, laughing as well at this playfulness that arisen so naturally between the three of them, glanced over at Suijin. She was still smiling, watching Kiko and Souten banter lightly back and forth. The kami seemed to notice her gaze and looked over at her.

“I hardly see youkai and humans living peacefully with each other. Our different species are not made to be naturally in conflict, but that is often what happens. The kitsune and the fox, too, they are your friends?”

“They’re okay,” Kiko said primly, raising her nose to the air. “They’re just silly boys, but they’re good in a pinch. Kai’s pretty easy to trick into things, I mean. Shippou’s kind of mouthy. Fox and wolf youkai aren’t that bad.” 

“Not all of them,” Rin said without thinking. Kiko glanced over at her, a connection slowly threading itself within her mind, but not yet fully formed. 

“It will be dangerous for all of you,” Suijin said quietly, looking between the three of them. So young, framed by their dark, wet hair, so soft and fragile. She hoped she wouldn’t see any of them be broken any time soon. “I will do my best to protect you, as will Chuuro and our allies.”

“It’ll be easy to protect me,” Kiko said encouragingly. “I don’t plan on getting anywhere near that pillar thing. I’ll stay back and give orders or something.”

“Kiko…” Rin sighed. “You keep saying that, but what if we need you?”

“I will be there, just like you know, a mile back. Behind a rock.” She looked at Suijin. “Will there be rocks where you’re taking us?”

“Many,” Suijin confirmed.

“See? I’ll find a nice rock and just park there and send positive energy. Like a cheerleader! I’m a cheerleader at school, you know. That’s what I’ll be doing.”

“I’ll be ripping my foes apart with the thunder of the Thunder Demon Clan!” Souten declared, raising her fists triumphantly. “They will rue the day they crossed paths with Souten, the last of the thunder youkai!” Kiko patted her on the head, looking more bemused than believing. “I will!” Souten whined. 

“Of course you will,” Rin agreed, but she was already considering the young youkai with a fearful expression. Souten was stubborn and arrogant in ways that might become quite dangerous in a battle. She’d have to ask Kohaku or Kai to keep an eye on her. Normally, she’d ask Shippou since he was the closest in age and strength to her…but the two of them were like oil and fire—anything that was going to happen would happen ten times stronger.

“I was wondering about something, though…” Kiko said suddenly.

“Hmm?” Suijin said, sensing this comment to be directed at her.

“If Izanami is sealed in the underworld, how do souls get in? Like when people die? Shouldn’t it be blocked off for everyone to keep her inside?” 

“That would make sense, wouldn’t it?” Suijin mused. “But that’s the nature of the seal in place. When Izanagi sealed her inside, he used a powerful rock who became a kami with the power it was given—Michikaeshi. So long as the seal in place, Michikaeshi keeps evil trapped in but allows anyone to enter. And some workers of the underworld also come and go, such as the shinigami. They need to be able to leave and enter freely in order to ferry souls to the underworld. It is not quite the Hell you are probably more used to. Evil spirits go there, but so do the good.” 

“I almost went there,” Rin said quietly, almost unnoticeably. Kiko turned to her, face already paling. 

“Rin? What are you talking about?” 

“When I was a little girl. That’s how I met Lord Sesshoumaru. He saved me from the shinigami that were coming to take me the underworld. I had helped him earlier and he was just repaying the debt…but…”

“You—you were _dead_?” Kiko repeated, fear and shock overriding her features. She reached over, Souten’s hair forgotten, and took her friend’s hands into her own. “What happened? You didn’t tell me this back when you told me about how you met him!”

“Twice, but the second time wasn't so...it’s just…” Rin began, trying to smile. “I just wanted to…”

“It was a youkai,” Souten surmised softly. "A youkai killed you." Rin looked at her, then Kiko, and nodded.

“I traveled with Lord Sesshoumaru for years,” Rin immediately said. “I met so many different youkai and I learned to love and trust them all, but I just…sometimes I just get a bad memory of back then…that’s all.”

Kiko was trying to digest this. Her emotions ran wild across her features—confusion, fear, surprise, anger. She was not a child always quick to make connections like her cousins, so it took her a long moment to connect the dots. As she did so, she was pulling Rin to her, hugging the girl close to her body.

“It’s nothing, really,” Rin tried to explain, sensing that things were spiraling quickly. “I do really trust all youkai. I don’t wish any of them ill-will or anything. It was just how things used to be, back then.”

Suijin watched them, noticing how Souten slowly drew closer, trying to decide whether or not she was wanted in this moment.

“It was…” Kiko began softly, her breath shifting a wet chunk of Rin’s hair slightly. “It was the _wolves_. That’s why you didn’t go see the baby. And why you don’t ever let Kai get close to you.”

“It’s just a reflex,” Rin began, pulling away to look at her friend. “He had nothing to do with it. He was just a kid, like me. He’s really nice and I do genuinely like him.”

But the seed was already sown. Kiko’s expression had changed into something neither Rin nor Souten had seen before. Suijin recognized it, but only because she was thousands of years older than the rest of them. The older teen’s eyes were brimming with tears, but she didn’t let them fall. Something deep within her was scraping against her sides, like a match against the matchbox, trying to catch light but failing. Suijin knew that Kiko couldn’t understand it even as it clawed at her insides. Trying to reconcile good and evil, trying to understand how dark things could happen to such bright souls, trying and failing to understand at all. And then the spark trying to catch, the temper trying to flare. Not yet. Not just yet. 

“Kiko…” Rin murmured and the two girls locked eyes. After a second, they fell into each other, grasping each other in a desperate hug. Souten was less this hesitant this time, falling into them and their arms surrounding her too. 

‘ _These girls_ ,’ Suijin thought to herself, looking down at water. It reflected all of them, waving around the lines of their bodies, rippling out as if their very influence was spreading out too, to one another and now to her. ‘ _These girls could very well save the world._ ’

_________________________

 

“You guys took so long!” Shippou complained, hands on his hips. “What were you doing in there?”

“I’m not sharing secrets with you!” Souten retorted and the two instantly started glaring at each other.

“Secrets?” Kai laughed lightly, looking over at Kiko and Rin. “That sounds awfully serious for a bath.” The elder girl looked at him suddenly and with such ferocity that the smile fell immediately off his face. Rin glanced between them and Kai suddenly realized that he had missed something potentially _very_ important. “Uhh, Kiko—” he began, but she breezed right by him as though he had not spoken at all. Something was different about her posture too as she moved towards Chuuro and Kohaku. The two were waiting one end of the long hallway beside a door that would soon serve as their portal to the next location.

“Is everyone ready?” Kohaku asked, glancing among them. Without their knowing, Suijin had been sewing blessings into their clothes as they were washed and mended and now each teen looked like a slightly shinier version of themselves. Souten and Shippou had chalked it to the power of divine soap, but Kohaku and Rin were slightly more skeptical. The latter was tying up the sleeves of her kimono to keep them out of her way. 

“That—” Chuuro began, watching her, “isn’t a half bad idea, kid. If any of you have any loose items that you don’t want to lose, I’d suggest you bolt them down to something right now.” 

“Loose?” Kohaku asked, looking over at Kirara’s packs. They were well-secured, but it was an odd request. “Why?”

“Uhh, let’s just say that it’s going to get bumpy for a little bit,” Chuuro explained, glancing over at Suijin.

“Don’t be alarmed,” she said as Chuuro reached for the doorknob and pushed it open. Beyond the doorframe, a ship rocked violently in a severe thunderstorm. Waves and torrents of wind threatened to flip the wooden vessel over completely, but it seemed to keep upright by some kind of miracle.

“I am _completely_ and _totally_ alarmed,” Kiko said as a gust of rain blew in through the door.  
  
“Yeah, that’s pretty alarming,” Shippou agreed. All the children turned to the gods they were following, eyes wide with alarm. 

“It’ll be fine,” Chuuro said lightly. “I mean, probably.”

“PROBABLY?!” Kiko squealed as he leapt through the portal, Suijin on his heels. Kohaku mounted Kirara, pulling Rin and Souten up after him, and together the three of them went next. Kai followed shortly, glancing back at Kiko, still pretty confused as to her sudden change in attitude towards him. Shippou grabbed Kiko’s hand at the last minute.

“Don’t worry, I can become a floatation device if you go overboard,” Shippou said, grinning when Kiko’s expression turned to pure panic. “And here we GO!”

To say that the ship was rocking would be a severe understatement. Kiko felt that she was on the set of that American movie that her mother loved so much, where the giant waves threatened those handsome guys on their giant boat. Only that had been a modern boat. _This_ boat, in comparison, was a shoddy wooden fishing vessel, with very little room on board beyond the floors that they were all now clinging to stay on top of and the mast that raised up high from the center of it. She reached out for the mast where it connected down to the hull, grabbing it with both arms and holding on tightly for dear life. Sekichu had shrunk in size slightly and was now tucked into the pocket of Kiko’s hakama, making an urgent sort of tweet as the red pants flapped in the wind.

Shippou had already turned into a sort of balloon, anchoring himself with a bit of rope, and Kai was holding on to the ship’s railing for dear life. Only Kohaku, Rin, and Souten looked at comfortable atop Kirara, but even they were struggling to avoid the crashing waves that kept hitting the boat. Chuuro and Suijin seemed to be completely unaware of this at all, their feet staying flat on the ground even when the ground seemed to be threatening to turn over. 

A maniacal sort of laugh from atop the mast caught all their attention at once. There was a man up there, seemingly having the time of his life.  

“Damn it, Mokuzu,” Chuuro yelled up, looking irritated. “You could’ve at least picked a better boat for the kids! They’re all getting shuffled around!”

The man looked down and grinned at them. His hair was a whip of wet curls, almost like seaweed around his face. His beard too was wild, whipping over his shoulder in the wind. He was sea-burnt, browned far more than any nobleman would ever be. And from around his neck, a twisted bundle of seaweed and fishing line held a brilliant blue gem. 

“ _You_!” Kiko screeched as a powerful wave nearly knocked her grip off the pole. Behind her, she didn’t notice Kai moving to grab her or Shippou if either of them went overboard in the storm. “I know you! You’re the weirdo from Hatsumode!”

“Ahh, you brought Sekichu!” Mokuzu called down, smiling at her. “I figured you’d take to her like a fish to water.” He then seemed to hear his own pun and chortled.

“Are these storms _really_ necessary, Mokuzu?” Suijin muttered, looking at the waters around her distastefully. “This is why I hate traveling in the sea. So impolite.” 

“Sorry, milady,” Mokuzu smiled apologetically. “The other sea kami have been trying to drown the third pillar with endless storms over the island. It’s not doing much good, to be honest. Raijin doesn’t seem to mind storms and Yomotsu-Shikome—well, you know how _she_ is.”

“Yeah…I’m still working on how we’re going to deal with her,” Chuuro grumbled. “Given how crazy she gets when you bring kami near her, I’m not sure whether it’s a good idea to be bringing so many of us at once. Maybe her head’ll just explode and we won’t even have to do anything.”

“ _That’s_ wishful thinking,” Shippou muttered, flapping in a heavy gust of wind. 

“You’re a kami too?” Kiko called up to Mokuzu.

“Nah,” he yelled down, letting out a loud ‘ _WAHOO’_ when a particularly powerful wave nearly toppled them all over. “I’m a contingency plan. But I brought someone who is.” He jerked a thumb behind him, to the back of the ship. There, a man sat with his back to the entire group, hanging off the end of the boat and fishing with an outrageously long pole that he flicked back and forth with ease. All manner of fish would come with his line, crashing on the wooden floor behind him. After a moment, though, the motion of the rocking would send whatever he had caught over the railing and back in the water. He didn’t seem to notice.

“Ebisu!” Chuuro said, grinning. “That’s a relief.”

“Hey mister!” Kai tried to yell as a particularly tasty-looking tuna flopped back off the boat moments after Ebisu’s line had flicked it onboard. However, the nausea rising in him quickly made him regret even thinking of the tuna as ‘tasty-looking.’ He was pretty sure he looked green to the rest of them. “You’re losing all your fish!” 

“Don’t bother, kid,” Chuuro yelled. “He can’t hear you. He’s deaf.” 

“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Kohaku said, rocking unsteadily as Kirara dodged another splash of water. Rin and Souten held onto him like a chain, but he didn’t seem to have much left in him if the storm didn’t let up soon. “But are we close?” 

Mokuzu grinned and looked up, towards the front of the ship. He raised one arm up, finger pointing ahead, and the rest of the group looked that way. On the horizon, a dark island was pouring fire and lava, almost like fireworks, out into the sky.

“Sakurajima,” he yelled down. “Probably the most active and violent volcano in Japan. That’s where they’re raising the third pillar as we speak. But not for long, if we have any say in it, ehh?” He glanced down at them before his laughter twisted into another maniacal spiral.

“Stop this crazy ride,” Kiko whimpered, staring at the fiery volcano before them as it spit ash high into the sky. “I wanna get off.”


	25. Fortune Favors the Bold

In the early 20th century, a massive eruption and the subsequent heavy lava floes would connect Sakurajima to the Osumi Peninsula. The major city Kagoshima would blossom within range of it and people would come to see the turbulent volcano as yet another aspect of their daily lives.

But here, in the mid-16th century, that eruption had not yet happened and the island still stood apart from the rest of the connected lands like an ominous enemy on their horizon. Small pockets of humans lived both on the island and the mainland just across the water, but they did not regard the volcano with any sense of normality or routine—to them, Sakurajima seemed an entity all of its own, prone to violent outbursts if not properly appeased with sacrifices and rituals.

When the waters finally seemed to calm just along the shoreline, the wooden ship had made land quickly. The gods seemed unperturbed by the trip they had just endured, but the children were in various states of disrepair. Kai had rushed off the boat first, finding a small cluster of bushes to heave into, while Kiko’s legs had given out on her as she tried to walk off the ship’s gangway. Mokuzu had scooped her back up, depositing her back on her feet with a lazy sort of grin. 

“You’ll get your sea legs soon enough if we have to do that again,” he assured her.

“ _Nope_ ,” Kiko grumbled, finding a large rock on the coastline to stumble towards and sit on. “I’m never getting on _that_ boat again, never ever. I’m done. Completely done. No more sea travel for me. Unless it’s like…a cruise ship…with hot boys working the cabanas…and a pool…”

Shippou dismounted off Kirara first, looking rather queasy himself. He managed to make it Kiko, dizzy as he was. “Kiko, there are…two of you…” he muttered, sitting on the ground and resting his head on the rock. Rin joined shortly after, holding Souten in her arms to keep the thunder youkai from falling over. Kohaku stayed with Kirara, steadying himself against her back. Kai joined him after a moment, swishing his mouth out with a bit of seawater. He clearly didn’t like the taste, but it was better than remnants of vomit.

“I don’t like ships,” he told Kohaku and the older boy nodded in solidarity.

“I forgot how fragile humans are…” Chuuro muttered, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “I guess I could’ve thrown you all in a separate pocket dimension while we were traveling.”

“No thanks,” the kids answered almost in unison.

From the back of the ship, Ebisu was taking a large swordfish off his line and surveying it carefully. He turned around, swinging his legs back onto the boat, only to realize that the rest of his catch was gone. Looking slightly confused at this, he moved to the front of the boat, and then seemed even _more_ surprised to see all the people gathering on the shore.  But even in his confusion, his face was joyful.  Almost too joyful, considering the situation unfolding around them. 

“Oh…hello,” he said in a stilted voice, a result of his deafness. And then he held up his hands and began signing. 

“Yeah, this is them,” Chuuro answered after he read the signs, making sure Ebisu could see his lips moving. “Well, the ones that didn’t get put behind Raijin’s barrier.”

Ebisu signed again, fingers moving rapidly, and Kiko noticed Rin looking at him attentively. “You can…can you understand _that_?” she asked. Rin glanced over at her and nodded before turning her attention back to Ebisu.

“Just a little. When I was a child, I was mute for a long time. The villagers made me learn a few things so I could communicate with them, but I honestly didn’t have much interest in it at the time, and I started speaking after…well…” She cast her eyes downward.

That confusion in the pit of Kiko’s belly lit anew and she looked over at Kai, who was helping Kohaku unpack weapons from Kirara’s back. He didn’t know, Rin had said, he wasn’t involved, but he _was_ …he _had_ to have _known_ …what if he had…?

Ebisu had noticed Rin watching him by this point and grinned at her. He signed something and she nodded hesitantly, her own hands raising and beginning to move. Her movements were extremely stiff compared to the fluidity of his, but Ebisu didn’t seem to notice as he climbed off the boat and came closer. He was a squat man, asymmetrical in posture and heavily pigeon-toed as he walked. He asked Rin another question in sign language and she answered this time in both sign and speech, motioning to the other members of her party as she did so. 

“Rin…Shippou…Souten…Kiko...Sekichu…Kohaku…Kai…Kirara…”

“Nice to…meet you,” Ebisu said out loud, abandoning his signing for a moment. “We…appreciate your…help.”

Mokuzu came over to them as well, throwing his arm over Ebisu’s shoulders. “He’s right! It’s awfully brave of you kids to come out here with us.” 

“We’re just doing what we can,” Kohaku replied with a short, formal bow. He was not a boy who enjoyed too much praise for what he considered a necessary task. 

“Then again…” Mokuzu added, using his free hand to scrub at his ragged beard. “You probably didn’t have much of a real say in it. Humans have a lot of free will, but you’d be foolish to think the celestial gods and fate itself aren’t pulling most of the strings here.” The children stared at him in shock for a moment.

“Thanks for shattering my illusions of autonomy,” Kiko muttered, kicking the rock she sat on in frustration. Mokuzu just grinned blithely at her.

“Yomotsu-Shikome will have known we’re here from the moment we made land,” Suijin said, interrupting the small talk. “She’s probably already on her way here as we speak. We need to split up—no two kami stay together if we want to keep her on her toes.”

“Kohaku with me,” Chuuro said with a nod towards the stoic teen. “We’ll scout ahead. _Strictly_ scouting, you got that, kid?”

Kohaku nodded. 

Ebisu tapped Rin on the shoulder and motioned at Suijin. 

“Okay, you two,” Suijin nodded. “Try and save as many humans as you can. If the volcano is already that active, the pillar must be close to completion.”

“Which means a lot of people are already dead,” Rin filled in the blank. Ebisu patted her on the shoulder comfortingly and signed something that seemed to make her feel better. Her posture straightened confidently and she nodded at him.

“The rest of us will push forward towards the volcano. Once we know what we’re up against, we’ll take it from there,” Suijin said. The remains of the group—Kai, Shippou, and Souten—began to rise from their positions of rest. Kiko remained sitting on her rock.

“If anything gets hairy, get out,” Chuuro commanded. “Our goal is to take down the pillar, not fight Raijin or Yomotsu-Shikome. They’ll get taken care of if we just do what we have to. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“I wouldn’t mind taking out that rat Kyuzetsu, though,” Souten growled and Chuuro pointed at her with a smirk.

“I’ll allow it, so long as it doesn’t put you in unnecessary danger. But make sure you figure out how he got mixed up in this _before_ you start dismembering him.” Then, with a snap of his fingers, Chuuro turned the ground underneath his feet into a large portal. On the other side, the volcano’s smoke was visible from several miles up. 

“Why didn’t we just take that here?” Kohaku asked as he and Kirara approached the portal. 

“Because, kid, I wasn’t about to get us here without Mokuzu, Ebisu, and the rest of the sea kami.” He jerked a thumb behind him, where the waves of the ocean still rocked heavily, revealing shifting faces and eyes. “It’s better to join with others than charge in guns blazing, don’t you know that? Besides, coming at the same time as a bunch of other kami means Yomotsu-Shikome won’t automatically come after me. That bitch scares the _shit_ outta me.”

Breaking away from near-suicidal independence was a lesson Kohaku was still trying to learn, so he didn’t reply as they entered the portal. It snapped shut with a satisfying crack, returning back to the ground it had been before. The rest of the group turned towards the island proper, beginning to move towards the short cluster of trees a bit off the coast. Those few trees would yield into a massive deciduous forest, then the higher, evergreens as the slope began steadily, before finally revealing the endless rock and three peaks of the volcano itself. It was a clear enough path, even if the foliage obscured most of it.

“Kiko, aren’t you coming?” Kai asked, trotting back to the rock where she sat when he noticed she was not walking as well. 

“Don’t talk to me,” she snapped back and he recoiled in surprise.

“Did I…did I do something?”

“It’s what your…kind does!” 

“Kiko…” Rin began, casting a glance back at them. The rest of the group had slowed too, watching this encounter.

“My…kind? You mean wolf youkai?” 

“I mean human-killers! Is there a difference?”

“But I don’t…Kouga made that illegal when he took over all the clans,” Kai tried to argue.

“Before then, though—” Kiko persisted, pointing a finger at him. “Before then, had you ever eaten a human?” 

A pause, and then the wolf’s eyes went downward. “It was different back then. I didn’t—” 

“You—you _joked_ with me about it! About _eating_ me! Is _that_ what you really want to do? Is that why you hang out with us? You’re just waiting to kill us and eat us! You…you… ** _MONSTER_**!” She scooped a handful of pebbles and chucked them at him, missing by a wide mark. But her intention stung the boy enough for him to raise his head and look at her. Their eyes met briefly, his reticent, hers hurt, and a hateful silence took hold between them as they both looked away. 

“That’s fine, that’s fine,” Mokuzu said after a second, breaking the quiet up. “Kai, you go on ahead and keep an eye on your friends. Kiko needs to stay with me.” Not needing any other excuse, Kai turned and padded towards the woodsline where Suijin and Shippou were already waiting, Souten on her way as well. 

“Wait, what?” Kiko said in surprise. “ _Why_?”

“You’re a little too…unskilled to be involved in this,” he explained. “Weak humans like us need to let the experts handle this.” 

“But Rin’s just a normal human too! I mean, I don’t _want_ to go, but that’s a _stupid_ reason for me to stay.”

“He’s right,” Rin called out from where she was already splitting off with Ebisu towards a visible set of rooftops on the eastern side of the coast. “Don’t worry; I’m doing the only really safe job. I’ll be fine. Stay here and I’ll see you soon.”

“I’ll bring you Kyuzetsu’s liver!” Souten called out as that group disappeared from sight and Kiko scrunched her nose up.

“No thanks. Jeez…just when I was…”

Mokuzu smiled at her and ruffled her hair playfully. “I know,” he said. “But don’t worry; I make great company because I tell great jokes! Let’s see…what do you call a tuna in makeup?”

“Oh my _god_ ,” Kiko groaned, putting her head in her knees as Sekichu nuzzled her cheek comfortingly. “I already hate this _so much_.” 

____________________

  

From miles above, the volcano didn’t seem to be doing much more than a usual eruption. Kohaku had fitted his filtration mask over his mouth just as they had passed through the beach portal, and he was immediately thankful that he did. The ash and smoke was heavy, but they were relying on the stacks of it to keep them hidden from anyone down below near the mouth of Sakurajima. Thankfully, neither Chuuro nor Kirara seemed too bothered by it. The storms that the other sea kami had been summoning to try and drown out the pillar’s creation seemed to be lessening, however, perhaps a result of the gods realized their ineffectiveness.

“There’s the pillar,” Chuuro said, pointing down at something that looked like a tiny pinprick in the center of the volcano’s northernmost peak. 

“They…they put it in the _lava_ ,” Kohaku said, already frustrated. 

“To keep as many of us out as possible. Sea kami can’t deal with fire and vice-versa. Elemental opposites at play. That’s not the best news.”

“Which means they knew we were coming _and_ who we were bringing with us.”

“Also not the best news.”

The three flew a bit lower, Kirara weaving in between the plumes of smoke as they tried to get a better look at the pillar. It seemed relatively unguarded, as only one person was visibly standing nearby.

“Raijin,” Chuuro spat. “We’re never getting in if he’s standing guard.”

“Look,” Kohaku said, pointing down towards the Sakurajima’s slope. Chuuro glanced over. Forming a veritable ring around the volcano, perhaps a little more than halfway up, were the dark figures that had once plagued Souten’s castle. Their noh masks were only tiny white blips from this height, but both men recognized them instantly. 

“Shit,” Chuuro grumbled. “They brought reinforcements.” 

“What _are_ those things?” Kohaku asked.

“We call them jisha. A sort of cross between a shikigami and a divine attendant,” Chuuro answered after a moment. “They’re entirely unnatural, but they’re also soulless, which makes them easy for mass creation. That noh mask is the only thing that actually houses power—the rest of the body stems from that.”

“That’s why my sister and brother-in-law were able to stop them by breaking their masks,” Kohaku said. 

“Well, better tell the rest of the gang that,” Chuuro grumbled, raising both his hands up slightly. Underneath his fingers, two small portals opened up, not wide enough to let more than a hand through. On the right side, Suijin was visibly moving through the forest, Souten, Shippou, and Kai at her side. On the left, Rin and Ebisu were already exploring a deserted village on the outskirts of the island. “There’s a shit ton of jisha about three-fourths of the way up the volcano.”

Suijin and Ebisu didn’t start at the sound of his voice (the latter not seeming to notice at all), but the others with them did. Rin tapped her partner on the shoulder, quickly signing what he had missed.

“Any sign of Raijin or Yomotsu-Shikome?” Suijin asked.

“He’s up here guarding the pillar, but no, she’s long gone. Probably already coming towards one of you. Keep your guard up.”

Rin signed the rest of this to Ebisu, who nodded and looked at the small portal. “There…are no people here…we will…continue on…”

“Suijin, can you and your kids find a way to get some of those masked fuckers away from the base of the mountain? It’s going to be a helluva fight if we can’t break some of them off.”

“Language,” she replied coolly, looking at the youkai with her. “We’re on it.” The communication portals snapped shut again as Kirara dropped even lower. Chuuro clearly wasn’t concerned about her ability to follow through—between her natural strength and her trident, Suijin could hold her own.

“I can draw some of them in,” Kai offered. “They’ll react if I get close enough, and then I can lead them down here.”

“That’s a good idea,” Suijin agreed. “Do it.”

Kai grinned despite the heaviness currently in his chest. A second later, he was already gone in a burst of air and dirt. Chuuro and Kohaku could already see the path he was carving through the forest up the mountain.  
  
“Too bad that kid’s just a youkai,” Chuuro said. “If he were a kami, I’d just have him lead Yomotsu-Shikome on a wild chase. Speaking of that bitch, where _is_ she?”

___________________

 

Ebisu kept getting separated from Rin as the two wandered around the deserted village on the outskirts of the island, so she had to try and devise a solution. She wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of being left alone without a weapon if someone—or _something_ —came down from the volcano.

 _< <We need a way to stay close.>>_ She signed at him after getting his attention. _< <Do you have any ideas?>>_

Ebisu considered this for a moment and then began detaching line from his fishing pole. Carefully, he bit off the end, making a long string that he then proceeded to line with bells from his pocket. Rin was surprised to see that he had bells in his pockets—she certainly hadn’t heard them earlier when they had been running, but that would be in line with the strange food he had pulled out a few minutes earlier and consumed. It looked like some sort of bread with meat inside, and there was absolutely no indication of its existence from the outline of his pockets.

With a jovial laugh, he tied one end of the string to Rin’s hand and the other to his. “You…are a child of luck…” he said slowly, smiling brightly. “Just like…me.” 

They moved back into the woods together, heading towards what seemed to be another village in the distance. There was smoke coming from that direction, unrelated to the volcano, so perhaps there was still someone to save. 

 _< <What do you mean ‘child of luck?’>>_ Rin signed.

 _< <You’ve escaped death twice, haven’t you? More perhaps more times, if you count how much the dog daiyoukai has protected you.>>_ 

Rin started, the bells jingling lightly as she slowed momentarily. _< <You know about that?>>_

 _< <I am the kami of luck.>>_ Ebisu signed. _< <I was lucky to escape death myself, so I became the god of it. My own mother and father threw me into the ocean, hating my birth defects. But that was the way back then. I do not blame them. But I also do not wish to see my mother return to this plane. There’s such good fishing to be done here that would be a shame to lose.>>_ 

 _< <Wait.>>_ Rin replied, realization dawning over her. _< <You are—>>_

Yomotsu-Shikome burst in from the bushes to their right, sending both of them crashing into the trees. The string between their hands kept them together, but only barely. A lucky chance. The bells rang terribly as Ebisu sprang to his feet and Rin scrambled to hers. The hag was facing them, the veil across her face moving from her breathing. Rin couldn’t see what lay beyond that enchanted fabric, but she could guess from Kiko’s description the first time they had faced this monster. Her hands, at her sides, were twitching, the claws covered in old, coagulated blood. 

“ _Hi. Ru. Ko._ ” Yomotsu-Shikome panted, her breath like rotten flesh left out in the summer sun.

“This…is…” Ebisu began slowly, his smile growing ridiculously large. “Not so…lucky…”


	26. Ensnared

As he rushed up the mountain, Kai could already smell the death ahead. Burning human flesh had a very specific smell and it was pouring down Sakurajima’s slope in thick droves. There was no telling how many innocent humans had died already. Perhaps Ebisu and Rin could stop any one left down in the villages from the same fate, if they— 

‘ _Human-killer_ ,’ Kiko’s voice repeated in his mind. He stumbled for a moment, almost losing his footing on the steep climb but managing to recover just in time. She was right. As a child, eating humans had seemed no different from deer or rabbits, only more rare. The northern dens where he and Shinta had been born were not particularly near any human settlements, so he often didn’t hear much about them, but occasionally one or two would wander into wolf territory and would be devoured. During the worst winter he could remember, his father and the other grown men had actively hunted humans to keep them all fed.

Later, when his parents were dead and he and Shinta were fleeing Naraku with the den’s children and elders, they had targeted easier prey than humans. The elders refused to risk a revenge attack from the humans. Kai remembered the caged animals again, and then the cattle and horses kept in pens that he had encouraged the wolf-form members of the clan to hunt. By that point, it was already rumored that Kouga of the Eastern Wolf Tribe had banned the slaughter of humans, but it was a loose law for the other clans until he had claimed the Goraishi and united the various wolf tribes. After the multitude of changes that Naraku’s genocide had brought upon them, one less food group seemed a miniscule adjustment to most of the members.

Kouga had fought down the few, rougher wolves that had tried to break the law early on. Kai had watched those fights, every single one, knowing that if he too might have to fight like that one day to maintain order. No weapons, no assists. Hand-to-hand, strength-against-strength. If a wolf couldn’t win that way, his words held no power.

Thankfully, Kouga never lost. 

Kai’s sharp nose smelled the jisha before he saw them. Their scent was always odd and out of place—now it was spring blossoms in this burning winter wasteland, the last time at Souten’s castle they had smelled of seawater, despite being heavily inland. He charged straight for the line of them, noticing how the masks of the ones nearest him turned to observe his arrival without moving the rest of their dark bodies. He skidded to a halt several hundred feet in front of them, taking a deep breath as he began to count their numbers by tens. 

 _Ten_ … _twenty_ … _thirty_ - _forty_ …he had thought of humans as a ‘food group’— _fifty_ … _sixty_ -no-wonder-she-didn’t-trust-him… _seventy_ …even though he was trying to do better, she was right… _seventy_ …how could any of them trust him, when his real motivation to change had only been because his alpha had told him to?

“Seventy-eight,” he said to himself. The seventy-eight jisha looking at him were already starting to quiver slightly in their place. The rest of their thick line stayed still. Those ones were reacting to him. If he ran, they’d give chase. But just to be certain…

Kai rushed forward, catching the jisha closest to him under the mask and ripping it off with one smooth motion. Using that some momentum, he then propelled himself upward into the air before the others sprung on the spot where he had just been. He flipped backward, landing a few feet away and breaking the mask on the ground with a fluid movement.

The remaining seventy-seven jisha charged all at once, and Kai turned heel in the blink of an eye. He let them get just close enough to whet their appetites, their shadowy fingers almost catching the tails on his furs, before he _ran_.

____________________

 

“That cleared a good size path,” Chuuro noted from the sky, watching a large swarth of jisha follow Kai back down the mountain. “I just hope they’re ready for them.”

“Raijin seems to have noticed,” Kohaku said, nodding towards the crater. The lightning god had turned around and was staring down the mountain. “Is he going to follow too?" 

“He won’t leave the pillar unprotected unless he absolutely has to,” Chuuro mused. “So how do we run him off…?”

“Can’t you just throw him in a portal like you did at the castle?”

“As fast as he moves, I don’t think so. I had an advantage when he was freshly summoned and still a little drowsy—he’s had days to recover now, though, and he’d probably be able to zap out of anything I threw him in before I could get it shut.”

The teen pursed his lips and stared down at the volcano. Chuuro could nearly see the gears spinning in his head.

“What if…” Kohaku began, brow furrowed. “What if you _didn’t_ get them shut in time?” 

“Huh?”

“What if you left them open on purpose?”

Chuuro stared at him for a moment before his face broke into a cocky grin. “You kid, I _like_ you.” He stretched his arms out and cracked his knuckles loudly. “Let’s see if _that_ works.”

____________________

 

Ebisu had just barely been able to stop Yomotsu-Shikome’s next attack by swinging his fishing pole wide and hard, connecting violently with her midsection and sending her back into the trees. She rolled over, not noticing the obvious dent in her chest from the impact, and rose back to her feet. 

 _< <We need to trap her somehow.>>_ The god signed quickly with his free hand, glancing over at Rin. _< <Any ideas?>>_

“I was thinking we just run,” Rin said aloud, facing him. Ebisu stared at her for a moment, then grinned widely.

“Okay…” he said. “I have a good…feeling about… _that_ way…”

They took off together, Ebisu moving at an unexpectedly quick pace given the misshapen nature of his spine and legs. The bells on the fishing line connecting them jangled noisily in the rush, which Rin suddenly realized was not the best idea since they were otherwise trying to stay under the radar. Yomotsu-Shikome was already pursuing them, an eerie, rattling sort of noise escaping from her as she ran. 

Without an understanding of the area around them, Ebisu and Rin were running blind. Occasionally, a sharp turn in the path would surprise them and they’d manage to recover only at the last second. Yomotsu-Shikome, seeing their movements, would more easily avoid the sudden change. 

“We’re not getting anywhere,” Rin muttered to herself, looking around. “If only we could find some sort of—” 

Her plotting was cut off abruptly by the largest change in the path yet. As they rushed through a heavy plot of trees, the ground suddenly gave way, revealing a high bluff that lead straight down into the lower valley they had been exploring earlier. Rin let out a scream as she began to fall, but Ebisu seemed less concerned. She quickly realized why: he was still walking through the air as though the ground had never ended. The line connecting them kept her from plummeting hundreds of feet to her death, catching her at the last minute with a sharp jerk, but the severe pain the line caused on her wrist was less than enjoyable. She was instantly sure that it was broken.

Ebisu, one arm dragged down by Rin’s weight, raised his fishing pole in the other. When Yomotsu-Shikome came crashing through the trees as well, he flicked his line out towards her with perfect timing. The hook snatched into her clothing, digging deep into her deadened flesh, and before she could react, he was using the entirety of his weight to throw her up and over his shoulder like he would a giant catch out in the ocean.

Just as the arc came to an end and it seemed that the fishing line would pull taut and save Yomotsu-Shikome from falling, Ebisu narrowed his eyes. Rin saw only a tiny shot of light before the fishing line on the pole snapped and Yomotsu-Shikome fell more than three hundred feet down into the forest below. Her eyes remained on Ebisu the whole time, her bloodied claws outstretched as if she still believed she might be able to catch him. The two of them watched her fall until she was nothing more than a crash in the trees in the distance.

Immediately, Ebisu walked back to the edge, helping pull Rin up and over to safety. She was holding her limp wrist gingerly.

 _< <Yomotsu-Shikome is not a god, only a vengeful spirit. So she can’t float as we do.>>_ Ebisu signed as he reached out for her wrist and tenderly examined it. _< <Sprained badly, but not broken. You were lucky.>>_

Rin smiled at him before peering down at the valley below. “I hope she doesn’t come back for us,” she said, glancing back up at Ebisu. 

_< <As far as she fell, she’ll probably find someone else to stalk. Suijin’s down there somewhere too. I would bet on the lake goddess if she runs across Yomotsu-Shikome.>>_

Rin nodded firmly. “Let’s keep moving. I saw some houses while we were running, I think.”

______________________

 

Tired of sea jokes and eager to physically shake off her own creeping anxieties, Kiko had suggested a rock-skipping competition to Mokuzu. Given the fervor with which he accepted, the girl wondered if she had accidentally discovered something else he was super-annoying at.

She was _correct_.

On his first shot, Mokuzu’s rock skipped across the choppy seawaters no more than thirty-two times. 

“Your turn!” he said, no trace of sarcasm in his voice. He _genuinely_ believed this to be a fair competition.

“You have _got_ to be…” Kiko muttered, before she pulled her arm back and tried to throw it exactly as he had. The flat rock flew true enough, before suddenly losing its elegance and landing in the water with a resounding _plop_. Sekichu made a disappointed sort of noise.

“Ooh, we all make mistakes. Don’t worry about it,” Mokuzu said, patting her on the back. “Besides, I live on the ocean. I have an advantage.” 

“I figured that with, you know,” Kiko motioned over her face. “The whole seaweed-shark tooth necklace aesthetic.”

“It’s that obvious?” Mokuzu said ignorantly, fingering one of the larger teeth on his necklace.

Kiko ignored his obliviousness for a moment, not physically able to process it at the moment alongside all her other emotions. Instead, she focused on the large gem at the center of the necklace. “What is _that_ thing?” she asked, reaching out to touch it.

Mokuzu’s hand caught her in a vice grip and she yelped in surprise. “Sorry,” he said. “You better not touch that.”

Kiko wrenched her hand away, rubbing it as she pouted at him. “You didn’t have to twist. You almost gave me a burn. What, is it some sort of powerful gem, like that one my cousin destroyed?”

“The Shikon no Tama? Definitely not. It’s a gift from the god Susanoo himself. It passes among the tribes that live in the islands I’m from. When one person who possesses it dies, any man or woman can test their strength and stamina by searching for it along the ocean floor where it is thrown after the burial. The person who finds it gets it. I got it nearly thirty years ago, when I was just a boy.”

“What if someone tried to keep it?” Kiko asked.

“The sea always claims it. About three hundred years ago, a man from the neighboring island kept it after his father died. The sea rose and drowned the entire village—and the stone was found by the next possessor a few days later.” 

“Well, that’s _terrifying_. Does it do something cool? Like give you some sort of superpowers?”

Mokuzu considered this. “I can commune with Lord Susanoo himself, when necessary. And it does have one particular power…”

Kiko leaned in. “Tell me. I’m good with secrets.”

He grinned at her. “You know, I think I will. But not right now.”

Kiko deflated. “Seriously? You suck! Every time I think I finally know what’s going on, there’s like five thousand more secrets I find out about.”

Mokuzu watched her for a moment and then pulled a small gourd off of his belt. “Here, I’ll show you something else instead.” He uncapped it and gently poured some of the water inside out onto the sand. It was brilliant blue, rippling in circles but never spreading out or sinking into the sands. “A gift from Lord Susanoo. Look in the water.”

Kiko followed the command, sitting down in the sand to do so. As the water settled, it began to reflect their faces and then, after a moment, the faces of their companions. “You can see the others,” she breathed in awe. Sekichu peered over her shoulders, the pool reflecting in the goldfish’s large, dark eyes.

“It’s good for keeping track of everyone. Let’s see how it’s going, shall we?” he asked, and the scope of the reflecting pool seemed to widen out, showing the island from above. “There’s Chuuro and Kohaku, near that peak,” he pointed out. “And Rin and Ebisu are somewhere over here, I think. Suijin and the rest should be…”

His finger paused, staring at the path Kai was carving down the mountain, the jisha on his heels, and the opposite path Suijin, Souten, and Shippou were carving up towards him. Their plan was obvious even to Kiko, but what the goddess and the youkai couldn’t see, reflected in the mirror pool—

“They’re walking into a _trap_ ,” Kiko gasped, scrambling up off the sand in an automatic motion and charging up the shoreline towards the forests. “Come on, Sekichu!”

Mokuzu tried to catch her arm, but the teenager was already farther ahead than him and pushing faster through the sand than he was. “Kiko, wait—!” 

Kiko didn’t hear him and wouldn’t have stopped even if she did. She didn’t hear anything besides the sudden rush of blood in her ears and the pounding of her heart. She had to _warn_ them, had to let them know what was _happening_ —


End file.
